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THE BORDER WARS 

OF 

NEW ENGLAND 



BOOKS BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE 

Each 1 vol. 12mo. 
With Maps and Illustrations. $1.50. 



The Border Wars op New England. 

The Making op the Ohio Valley States, 
1660-1837. 

The Making op Virginia and the Middle 
Colonies, 157S-1701. 

The Making op New England, 1580-1643. 

The Making op the Great West, 1512-1853. 



THE BORDER WARS 



OF 



NEW ENGLAND 

COMMONLY CALLED KING WILLIAM'S AND 
QUEEN ANNE'S WARS 

SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE 

"Honor's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat, at all times."-B. Jonson 
WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 

(^w as ill? 




NEW YORK k-^^.C '- -' ^ "^ 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
1897 



COPYRIGnT, 1897, BT 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 






/ 



TROW DIRECTORV 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 






Q 

<: 



XlO 



LUCIUS TUTTLE, Esq. 



CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION 

King William's War 

I. Hostilities Begin 



CHA.P 



9 

14 
II. The Sack of Dover ..••••• 

June 27, 1689. 

III. The Captivity of Sarah Gerrish . . • -23 

IV. Pemaquid Taken; with the Relation of John 

Gyles ...•••••• 

August, 1689. 



V. Church's First Expedition . . . • 

September, 1689. 

VI. Frontenac's Winter Raids . . • • 

March, 1690. 

VII. PHiPS Takes Port Royal, but Fails at Quebec 

May-October, 1690. 

VIII. Church's Second Expedition . . . - 

September, 1690-1691. 

IX. York Laid Waste, Wells Attacked . . 

February-June, 1692. 

X. Rebuilding of Pemaquid to Treaty of 1693 . 
May, 1692-Auguet, 1693. 

XI. Durham Destroyed ..-••• 

July 18, 1694. 

XII. A Year of Disasters . 

1694-1696. 



27 

36 

43 
55 
66 
73 
82 
94 

104 



X CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

XIII. Onslaught at Haverhill 117 

March 15, 1G97. 

XIV. To THE Peace of Ryswick 129 



Queen Anne's War 

XV. The New Outlook 141 

1702-1T03. 

XVI. Six Tekiuble Days 153 

August, 1703. 

XVII. The Waii Grows in Savagery . . . .162 

1703. 

XVIII. The Sacking of Deerfield 172 

February 28, 1704. 

XIX. The Enemy Cuts off Both Ends of the Line . 187 

1704. 

XX. Church's Last Expedition 193 

May, 1704. 

XXI. Negotiations for Neutrality .... 205 

July, 1704-April, 1706. 

XXII. Hostilities Resumed 216 

April, 1706-Oct., 1706. 

XXIII. Futile Siege of Port Royal 224 

May, 1707. 

XXIV. Haverhill Sacked 238 

August 29, 1708. 

XXV. Invasion of Canada Fails ; Port Royal Taken . 250 

April, 1709-October, 1710. 

XXVI. More Indian Depredations 263 

June, 1710-April, 1711. 

XXVI I. The Great Shipwreck 267 

August 22, 1711. 

XXVIII. Conclusion 284 






ILLUSTRATIONS 



Sir William Phips Attacking Quebec . . . Frontispiece 

PAGE 

King William III 1 

Queen Mary ... 4 

Cotton Mather 9 

Sir Edmund Andros 12 

Fort and Approaches, Pemaquid, Me 29 

Colonel Benjamin Church 37 

Plan of Falmouth Neck, Portland 40 

Samuel Sewall 45 

Lieutenant-Governor Stougiiton 46 

Canadian Snowshoe Ranger 47 

Wentworth Garrison, Salmon Falls, N. H. . . .49 

Phips Raising the Sunken Treasure 56 

Sketch Map, Approaches to Quebec 59 

Quebec, from an Old Print 61 

Site of Storer Garrison, Wells, Me 71 

JuNKiNs Garrison, York, Me 75 

John Nelson 89 

The Bastile, in the Time of Louis XIV 91 

Woodman Garrison, Durham, N. H. . . . . .97 

Ruins of Woodman Garrison 101 

Indian Head Breaker 107 



Xll ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

In the Bay of Fundy 110 

DusTAN Monument, Boscawen, N. H 121 

Hannah Dustan Slays heh Captors 125 

DusTAN Tankard 127 

Dog Mail-carrier . 132 

Scamman's Jug 133 

Bradstreet House, North Andover, Mass. . . . 135 

Queen Anne 142 

Louis XIV 145 

Governor Simon Bradstreet 146 

The Earl of Bellomont ........ 147 

Governor Joseph Dudley 149 

Ancient Fkrry-way, Kennebunk River, Me. . . . 155 

Scene of Harding's Exploit 157 

Ancient Seat of the Pigwacketts, Fryeburg, Mi-:. , . 163 
Door of Sheldon House, with Marks of Axes . . .179 
Ensign Sheldon's House, Deerfield, Mass. . . . 181 

Glimpse of Lake Winnipesaukee 188 

Church's Sword 193 

Ancient Chart of Penobscot Bay 195 

Entrance to Mount Desert Harbor 197 

At Mount Desert Island 198 

Ruins of Church's House 203 

Ancient Garrison, Dracut, Mass 217 

Colonel Francis Wainwright's House, Ipswich, Mass. . 227 
Plan of Poi/r Royal, Nova Scotia ..... 231 
Site op Wainwright Garrison, Haverhill, Mass. . . 242 
Peaslee Garrison, Haverhill, Mass 245 



ILLUSTRATIONS XIU 

PAGE 

Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Ron, Emperor of the Six Nations. 252 
Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Ton, King op the Maguas . . 253 
EcoN Oh Koan, King of the River Nation . . . 254 

Ho Nee Yeath Tan No Ron 255 

Map, Place of the Wreck 378 

Schuyler and the Indian Scouts 280 

A Wampum Peace Belt 291 

Treaty Symbols 293 



INTRODUCTION 



A MONOGRAPH on the subject of tlie Indian wars 
during the reigns of King William III. and Queen Anne 
was a favorite project 
with my father, Samuel 
G. Drake, for which he 
gathered a mass of ma- 
terials in manuscript, but 
did not live to see real- 
ized. With the aid of 
these, and other contem- 
porary accounts, the 
present volume has been 
written. 

Although told more or 
less fully in all the gen- 
eral histories, the story 
is nowhere connectedly 
told, but is broken off 
whenever other features 

of the general subject demand a hearing. This method 
not only breaks the thread, but also the force of the 
story, which is much more satisfactorily followed in a 
compact form. 

A twenty years' war, practically continuous, would 
certainly constitute a critical period in the history of 
any people, but to one only just beginning to take firm 




KING WILLIAM III. 



2 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 

root in the soil, and to streffla out a few feeble brancnes 
into the wilderness, it was really a question of life or 
death. It was the strategy of the enraged enemy to lop 
off these branches and thus prevent the growth of, if not 
finally kill, the tree itself. 

At the breaking out of these wars, the New England 
frontier practically extended from the Hudson to the 
Penobscot, or from Albany to Pemaquid ; and while the 
rivers flowing southward to the sea, through the Eng- 
lish settlements, were always so many avenues of danger 
to be watched, this whole extent of country was open to 
an enemy who needed nothing but the sun, moon, or 
stars to guide him. To guard this long frontier was 
impossible. To block up the mohths of the rivers with 
forts, isolated from all support, was equally idle, as was 
proved by the utter failure of every such attempt. Here- 
in lay the weakness of the English. They were com- 
pelled to receive the enemy at their own doors, and that 
disadvantage they labored under from first to last. 

As the English inhabited open villages, onl}^ one 
practicable plan of defence suggested itself. This was 
to make certain houses, better adapted or more favor- 
ably situated for the purpose than others, so many rally- 
ing points for all the rest, thus turning mere dwellings 
into what were called garrisons. Exquisitely homely as 
these ancient structures seem to-day, nothing could more 
forcibly press home the startling fact that in them the 
sole dependence of a settlement often lay, or in what a 
decisive sense every man's house was his castle. Real- 
izing the uncertain tenure of these historic buildings, 
threatened as they are on every hand, I have reproduced 
as many of them as possible in these pages, believing 
too that, like the famous standard of Joan of Arc, as they 



INTRODUCTION 3 

had been through the ordeal, so with good reason they 
should share in the honor. 

The earliest Indian names, as preserved by old writers, 
like Champlain, Lescarbot, and others, may with pro- 
priety be dispensed with, as having been given without 
adequate knowledge in the first place, and dropped as 
soon as a more thorough knowledge of the subject was 
obtained. For the sake of convenience, the English fell 
into the custom of calling the various tribes by the 
names of the rivers they lived upon, as the Kennebec, 
Penobscot, and St. John Indians, etc., but the French, 
with more accuracy, designated the three principal 
Abenaki Nations as Canibas, Malicites, and Micmacs, 
each speaking a different dialect. According to this 
classification, the Canibas occupied the Kennebec and 
its tributaries, the Mahcites all between the Penobscot 
and St. John, the Micmacs, generally speaking, all now 
comprised in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick. Besides these, the once numerous Sokokis, 
of the river Saco, dwindled to a handful, had mostly 
joined other tribes, and the Pennacooks, of the Mer- 
rimac, were no longer either very numerous or united, 
though still sufiiciently formidable to be troublesome 
neighbors. Their villages were to be found in the 
neighborhood of the Amoskeag Falls, now Manchester, 
and at various points above, while the peaceful section, 
or Praying Indians, as they were called, lived at Paw- 
tucket Falls, now Lowell, on a tract of land reserved to 
their use by the efforts of the Apostle Eliot in 1653. 
Although these people were friendly to the whites, there 
was much the same sort of intimacy between them and 
their pagan relations as between the seceding Mohawks 
and their friends, a fact sure to cast more or less sus- 



THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND 



picion upon tlieir fidelity m time of war. In the Con- 
necticut Valley the Indians had been, for the most part, 

dispersed during Phil- 
ip's War, the fragments 
going to other and 
safer localities. The 
upper valley of this riv- 
er seems to have been 
reserved as a hunting 
ground, or as a debata- 
ble ground, roamed 
over by different and 
hostile tribes from time 
to time. 

Back of all these, in 
the heart of the White 
Mountains, lay what 
was, perhaps, the old- 
est village of the Soko- 
kis, near what is now Fryeburg, Me. This village was 
Pigwacket, or Pequawket, long a thorn in the side of 
the English from its almost inaccessible position, which 
made it practically secure from attack, while the waters 
flowing out of the mountains here led directly to the 
Maine coast on one side, or to the New Hampshire coast 
on the other. 

For war purposes the rivers were connected by cross- 
paths, easily traversed by the runners who carried the 
war token from village to village. 

And what of the Indian himself ? What shall be said 
of him ? Undoubtedly there is much to admire, more to 
arouse our pity. We cannot but feel that he was the in- 
nocent victim of a cruel destiny. We know that he was un- 




QUEEN MARY. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

justly dealt with. We admit that he fought for his rights 
as he knew them, and in treating of the question, from 
a moral stand-point, we are invariably driven to take the 
defensive. All we know is that the white man was the 
willing instrument, perhaps the appointed instrument, 
of the red man's extinction. If the decrees of an inex- 
orable destiny are to be deplored, the world has been 
going wrong ever since the Creation. History is full of 
just such examples. 

But at the moment when we are ready to admire the 
red man's noble traits, his ferocious cruelty, that rage of 
blood which delights in rending and tearing its help- 
less victims, disenchants us. We note how he measured 
success in war by the amount of havoc and misery he 
was able to inflict, and turn away from him in horror 
and disgust. With the tormented English borderers, 
self-preservation was the higher law. The final appeal 
must therefore be to a Higher Court than ours. 



KING WILLIAM'S WAR 



HOSTILITIES BEGIN 

1688-1689 



THE renewal of hostilities with the Abenakis, after ten 
years of peace, was distinctly the result of English 
aggressions. At the bottom lay the one irritating cause 
of all the Indian wars from that day to this, never to be 
removed except by the final subjugation of First cause of 
one or the other race. By the rapid growth ^^*'* 

and steady extension of English settlements, peace was 
working the downfall of the natives even more certainly 
than war, for just as 
the wild grasses are 
eradicated by the cul- 
tivated sorts, so slow- 
ly but surely, step by 
step, the red man was 
being thrust back into 
the wilderness. Un- 
der such conditions 
little provocation was 
needed to fan the 
smouldering embers 
into a flame ; and the 
whole series of outbreaks, in their primary cause, may 
therefore be regarded as one. 

The Ten Years' War, or Lamentable Decade, as Cotton 




COTTON MATHEB. 



10 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1G88-1680 

Mather tearfully terms it, is commonly known as King- 
William's War, although it began some time before 
William ascended the throne. But the momentous 
events, arising from the revolution in England, merged 
what was at first merely a local struggle into the larger 
.proportions of a national conflict, as France and England 
soon went to war about the succession to the throne ; 
and, willing or unwilling, the colonies found themselves 
drawn into it. 

For New England no time could have been worse 
chosen for an outbreak. It came just after the people 
were arbitrarily deprived of self-government, and put un- 
der the rule of a royal governor, whom they soon heartily 
detested. This was Sir Edmund Andros, a favorite of 
James II. when Duke of York, and his governor of New 
Governor An= York after its recovery from the Dutch. 
dros unpopular. ^j[|.]^ ^^^ j^^^g ^f ^]^q people whom he was 

now sent to govern Andros had nothing whatever in com- 
mon. He was a thick-and-thin royalist, and they con- 
sidered James II. a despot. In his eyes they were little 
better than rebels and traitors ; in theirs, he was the 
ready tool of a tyrant. The people were therefore dis- 
concerted, angry, and stubborn — by no means the best 
frame of mind for facing a great public danger. 

Andros was, however, ready enough to assert the rights 
of his master, and the disputed Acadian boundary gave 
him an opportunity not to be neglected. In the spring 
of 1688 he sailed to various points of the Maine coast, 
as far as St. Castin's trading-post, at Penobscot, still 
Descent on kuowu by liis name. Sir Edmund purposed 
St. castin. holding the place permanently, but the 

ruinous state of the old French fort there induced him 
to change his mind. Before leaving, however, he plun- 



HOSTILITIES BEGIN 11 

dered St. Castin's house, respecting only the altar 
and vessels of the Catholic mission. The baseness of 
the act, so like to that of some roving buccaneer, 
aroused the indignation of St. Castin's tribesmen, the 
Penobscots, over whom he had unlimited control, and 
they were now ready to dig up the hatchet whenever 
he should give the signal. 

Another, and even less justifiable, exploit soon fol- 
lowed. This was the seizure of sixteen Indians at 
Saco, by Benjamin Blackman, a justice of the peace, in 
retaliation for the killing of some cattle at North 
Yarmouth. It is said that Blackman purposed selling 
these Indians into slavery. Be that as it may, the act 
set all the tribes buzzing with excitement. Eeprisals 
quickly followed. Immediately the Kennebec Indians 
made a descent upon New Dartmouth (Newcastle), 
taking Henry Smith, Edward Taylor, and Indians seized 
their families, prisoners, and carrying ^* ^^^°- 

them off to Teconnet. Egeremet, the chief sagamore, 
angrily told Smith that these things were done in return 
for the outrages committed at Penobscot and Saco ; 
significantly adding that St. Castin had promised the 
Indians all the powder and ball they might want to fight 
the English with.^ 

At the same time a Jesuit missionary arrived from 
Canada, bringing a present of powder and guns, and 
furthermore announcing that two hundred Frenchmen 
would shortly follow him.^ 

With the passions of the Indians inflamed against 
the English to a pitch of fury, it is not strange that 
some of the prisoners suffered death at the hands of their 
captors. And thus matters stood in the autumn of 1688. 

1 Smith's Relation to the Commissioners of the United Colonies, September 14, 1689, 
a Ibid. 



12 



THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1688-1689 



Fearing that he would soon have an Indian war on 
his hands, Sir Edmnnd first tried diplomacy. He im- 
mediately ordered all 
the Indian prisoners 
set at liberty, and 
called upon the sav- 
ages to do the same 
by the English cap- 
tives, and also to give 
up the murderers of 
any English without 
delay. These demands 
being treated with si- 
lent contempt, Sir Ed- 
mund found himself 
obliged to use force 
or confess defeat, with 
the result that his in- 
efficiency proved as 
deplorable in war as 
in diplomacy. 

Seven hundred men were hastily levied, and with An- 
dros at their head, marched down through the eastern 
country, in the beginning of November. They found 
not one solitary Indian to fight, suffered incredible 
Andres's futile hardships, and loudly complained of being 
march. ^j^^-jg j^^ about the country through frost 

and snow on a fool's errand. All the good that Andros 
reaUy did, in this worse than foolish expedition, was to 
leave garrisons in the various frontier posts of Maine. ^ 

1 He established a new post as a check to the Kennebec tribes, thus referred to in 
a letter from Wait Winthrop to his brother : "They have built something up Ken- 
nebec River which is called Fort Ann, where Captain Savage is with his Company." 
December 25, 1688. In December the governor was frozen up in the Kennebec. 




SIR EDMUND ANDROS. 



1688-1689] HOSTILITIES BEGIN 13 

Spring came, and with it news of the revolution in 
England. The arrest and imprisonment of Sir Edmund, 
at Boston, quickly followed. Being now without any 
lawful government, Massachusetts reassumed her old 
form, until such time as further orders could be re- 
ceived from England, and as the public exigency now 
demanded. Confusion in the administra- Andros deposed, 
tion of military, as well as civil, affairs ^p"'- '^^9. 
necessarily accompanied these abrupt and bewildering 
changes. The garrisons posted along the Maine bor- 
der took sides in the dispute. Many of the soldiers 
deserted, some Avere drawn off, and the rest with diffi- 
culty kept at their posts of duty. 

Some effort was made by the new government to pre- 
vent further hostilities with the Indians, but the storm 
had been long brewdng and was ready to burst at last ; 
and when it did, all the old animosities were dragged 
forth to add to its fury tenfold. 



II 

THE SACK OF DOVER 

June 27, 1689 

Dover is one of the oldest settlements in New Hamp- 
shire. By the year 1689 it had grown to be one of the 
most flonrishing. There were, in fact, two settlements, 
a second having grown up at the first falls of the Cocheco 
River, just as, in the course of time, lum- 

Cocheco Ffllls* 

ber was found to be the true source of 
wealth of the province. At these falls Richard Wal- 
dron had built a saw and grist mill. The forests stood 
at his door. The river very obligingly turned his mill- 
wheel. 

It is needless to add that Richard Waldron was the 
great man of his village. More than this, he had held 
Richard '^ot a few important civil and military 

Waldron. offices uudcr the province, and was at 

this very moment a major of militia, then an office 
nearly equivalent to that of a county lieutenant in Eng- 
land, and in war-times one of high responsibility. Wal- 
dron was now about seventy-five j^ears old, hale, hearty, 
and vigorous, and, unless report does him wrong, as 
hard to move as the dam of his own mill. 

Five block-houses guarded the settlement, for Dover 
touched the very edge of the wilderness. Waldron's, 
Otis's, and Heard's were on the north side of the river, 
and Peter Coffin's and his son's on the south side. All 



1689] THE SACK OF DOVER 15 

were surrounded by walls built of timber, wdth gates 
securely bolted and barred at night, at whicb time 
those families whose homes were not thus Garrison 

protected came into the nearest garrison to houses. 

sleep. In the morning, if all was safe, they went back 
to their own houses again. 

This was Dover. This was border life. Yet even its 
dangers had their charm. It was the making of a ro- 
bust race of men and women, whose nursery tales were 
the tragedies of Indian warfare or captivity, and who, as 
they grew up, became skilled in the use of arms, keen 
in tracking the bear or the moose, and almost as capable 
of withstanding hunger or hardship as the wild Indians 
themselves. 

Though they did not know it, the people of Dover 
were actually walking between life and death. They 
had forgotten ; but an Indian never forgets or forgives 
an injury until it is avenged. For years the memory of 
Waldron's treachery had rankled deep. It is no pleas- 
ant tale we have to tell, yet it is all true. 

During the expiring struggles of Philip's War, some 
thirteen years before, Waldron had made a peace with 
the Pennacook, Ossipee, and Pigwacket tribes, by which 
the calamities of that war w^ere wholly kept from him and 
his neighbors. It was a shrewd move thus to keep these 
restive Indians quiet. In the treaty the Indians prom- 
ised, among other things, not to harbor any enemies of 
the English, meaning PhiHp's men. The Indians shook 
hands with Waldron upon it, and were allowed to come 
and go as freely as they liked. 

This promise, however, was not kept. On the con- 
trary, it is certain that many of Philip's followers fled to 
the Pennacooks for protection. Indian liospitality could 



16 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

not refuse these fugiti^\^ an asylum, hunted as they 
were by the unrelenting vengeance of their conquerors. 
To give them up was indeed a hard condition, which it 
is not surprising to find disregarded. In other respects 
the tribes mentioned seemed to have lived up to their 
treaty obligations. 

But other tribes, living on the Androscoggin and Ken- 
nebec Rivers, who had been parties to the same treaty, 
were easily led to take up the hatchet again, and were 
soon busy at their old work of killing and plundering 
the defenceless settlers. Help being called for to put 
down this fresh outbreak, two companies were presently 
marched from Boston to their relief. 

When these soldiers came to Dover they found some 
hundreds of friendly Indians gathered there, as it would 
seem, to trade with, or have a talk with, their father 
Waidron'8 ^ud friend, Major Waldron. And though 

treachery. h^qj came armed, no good ground appears 

for supposing that they harbored any hostile intent 
whatever. 

It was then and there that Major Waldron dealt them 
the most terrible blow they had ever received — a blow 
struck, as it were, behind the back. 

The two captains. Sill and Hawthorne, having orders 
to seize all Indians who had been out with Philip, 
wherever found, upon being told that many of these very 
Indians were among those now present, would have 
fallen upon them at once without more words. But 
Waldron was more wary. A plan had arranged itself 
in his mind, by which the whole body of Indians could 
be taken without striking a blow. 

He proposed to the Indians to celebrate the meeting 
by having a sham fight, after the English fashion, to 



THE SACK OF DOVER 



17 



which they readily consented. Meantime, he called up 
Captain Frost's company from Kittery, and got his own 
men under arms. These, with the two marching com- 
panies, gave him all the force he needed to carry out his 
deep-laid plan. . -r t 

The next day the two bodies, English and Indians, 
were drawn up for the sham battle, into which the un- 
suspecting redskins entered with much spirit. Mean- 
time, while going through with certain simple manoeu- 
vres,' the English were quietly surrounding them. Still 
mistrusting nothing, the Indians opened the fight by fir- 
ing the first volley. "When their guns were discharged, 
the soldiers rushed in upon them, and seized and dis- 
armed them without the loss of a man on either side. 
In this manner upward of four hundred Indians were 
taken like so many silly herring in a net. 

They were then separated. Those known to be 
friendly were allowed to go in peace, but all those sus- 
pected of having aided Philip, numbering some two 
hundred in all, were sent under guard to Boston as 
prisoners, where seven or eight were hanged and the rest 
sold out of the country as slaves. It is true that those 
hanged were known to hate been concerned in some of 
the bloodiest massacres of the war. Those sold helped 
to defray the expense of their capture. And all the 
people said amen ! 

So now, long vears after, some of the same Indians 
who had been thus entrapped by Waldron laid their 
plans to be revenged. When it was found that the 
Dover people had fallen into careless habits, kept no 
watches, and would even let the Indians sleep m their 
houses, these plans were ripe for execution. It is true 
that some hints of intended mischief had been thrown 
3 



18 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

out in a vague sort of way, but the careless settlers hardly 
listened to them. 

When Waldron himself was spoken to about it, he 
jocosely told the uneasy ones to go and plant their 
pumpkins, and that he would tell them when the Ind- 
ians would break out. 

As the time fixed for the assault drew near, the two 
chiefs, Kankamagus and Mesandowit, brought their fol- 
lowers to within striking distance of the village.^ Indian 
cunning was then set to work. On Thursday evening, 
June 27, 1689, two squaws went to each of the five gar- 
risons and asked leave to sleep there that night. It 
being wet weather, they were readily admitted to all 
except the younger Coffin's, though the people at Wal- 
dron's offered some objection, until the bluff but kind- 
hearted old major himself quieted them by saying, 
"Let the poor creatures lodge by the fire." They were 
even shown how to unbar the doors, and let themselves 
out, Avithout troubling the people of the house. Coffin, 
more prudent, or less hospitable than the rest, bluntly 
refused them admittance. 

Mesandowit himself went boldly to Waldron's, where 
he was kindly received, all the more readily because 
he announced that a good many Indians were coming 
there to trade the next day. While the two were sitting 
at supper, like old friends, the chief jestingly asked, 
"Brother Waldron, what would you do if the strange 
Indians should come ? " 

" A hundred men stand ready when I lift my finger, 
thus," was Waldron's lofty reply. 

Not dreaming of the storm so ready to burst upon them, 

1 It is known that some of the assailants came all the way from the St. John River, 
showing wide-spread preparation. 



|l 



1689] THE SACK OF DOVER 19 

the inhabitants went to bed at the usual early hour. So 
far as known, not even one solitary sentinel stood guard 
over the doomed village. When all was still, the faith- 
less squaws noiselessly arose, quietly unbarred the doors 
of the four garrisons, and gave the signal agreed upon — 
a low whistle. Instantly the warriors, who had been 
lying in wait outside, rushed in. Eoused from sleep by 
the noise, Waldron barely had time to jump out of bed, 
pull on his breeches, and snatch up his sword, before the 
infuriated wretches, who were in search of him, came 
crowding into the room, tomahawk in hand. But the 
fiery old man was not to be taken without a struggle. 
Half-dressed, with his gray head bare, Waldron yet laid 
about him so lustily as not only to clear his own room 
of assailants, but also to drive them before him into the 
next. There was still a chance for his life, and he hast- 
ened to improve it. His musket and pistols had been 
left lying in his own room. Waldron therefore started 
to secure them. Seizing the moment when his back was 
turned, a savage sprang forward and brained the brave 
old man with a blow of the hatchet from behind. 

Grievously wounded, but still breathing, Waldron was 
now dragged into the great room, a chair put upon a 
long table, where he had often sat as judge, and his 
half -lifeless body roughly lifted into it, waidron tort- 
while his captors made ready to gratify ured to death. 
tbeir long-nursed vengeance with savage ingenuity and 
more than savage barbarity. 

"Who shall judge Indians now?" they asked the dy- 
ing man, with grim irony. 

Not to cut short Waldron's sufferings, his tormentors 
commanded other captives to get them some victuals. 
When they had swallowed their hideous meal, with the 



20 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

worthy major still sittif^ there, stunued and bleeding 
to death, in his chair, these miscreants first stripped 
him of his shirt, and then took turns at slashing him 
with their knives across the breast, each one crying out 
as he did so, " See ! I cross out my account ! " They 
then severed his fingers, one by one, at the joints, ask- 
ing in mockery if his fist would weigh a pound now. ^ 

By this time Waldron was so far gone that strength 
failed him. Seeing him about to fall, one of the Indians 
held up the point of the major's own sword, so that as 
the dying man pitched head-foremost upon the table, 
the weapon passed quite through his lifeless body. 

After killing or taking all who were in the house, the 
savages first plundered it and then set it on fire. 

Meantime, other parties, led by the chief Kankama- 
gus, Avere similarly engaged at the other garrisons. 
Heard's was saved by the barking of the house-dog, 
just as the Indians were stealthily gliding in at the 
gate. One of the inmates, Avith rare courage and pres- 
Heard's garri= Gucc of mind, ran to the spot, thrust the 
son saved. intruders out, shut to the gate, and held it 

so by throwing himself flat on his back, and bracing his 
feet against the gate, until the rest of the people came 
to his assistance. 

The elder Cofiin's house was taken and ransacked, 
but the lives of the inmates were spared. Finding a 
bag of money here, the Indians made Coflin scatter- it 
by handfuls over the floor, while they amused them- 
selves by scrambling for it, like so many mischievous 
boys. This was their way of making an impartial divis- 
ion of the money. 

1 It was said that Waldron was in the habit of putting his fist into the scale as a 
make-weight against their furs. 



THE SACK OP DOVER 21 

Youug Coffin stoutly refused to surrender, until the 
Indians brought out his old father, and threatened to 
kill him before his son's eyes. He then gave himself 
up. Both families were then put in a deserted house 
together, but not being closely watched, all made their 
escape while the Indians were engaged in plundering 
the captured houses. 

This was a sad day for Dover. Twenty-three persons 
had lost their lives, and twenty-nine more were being 
carried off, captives. Five or six houses, with the mills, 
were burned to the ground, all being done so quickly 
that the elated assailants were able to decamp without 
meeting with the least opposition, loaded with booty 
and exulting in the manner in which they had " crossed 
out their account " with Major Waldron. 

It is but just to add that the conduct of the savages dur- 
ing the sacking of Dover was not without some redeem- 
ing features. While certain persons seem to have been 
marked for unrelenting vengeance, others were spared, 
and still others not even molested. But the main cir- 
cumstance is this : A new departure took place in regard 
to the treatment of prisoners. Instead of wearing out 
a miserable existence among the Indians, as in times 
past, they were now mostly taken to Canada and sold 
to the French, whose treatment was at least humane, 
although it was only a change of masters, not of condi- 
tion, for the prisoners were held to belong to those who 
had bought them until ransomed by their friends. True, 
such conduct is wholly without warrant among civilized 
nations. But there was no appeal. The savages treated 
all prisoners as slaves, and disposed of them as such. 
And it must be admitted that the course taken by the 
English in selling their Indian captives into slavery 



22 THK BOUDKR WARS OF NKW ENGLAND [1680 

fully jiistilicd this spocit^of rotiiliatioii, by which the 
Kuglish ^vel•o, by far, tho greatest losers. 15e that as it 
may, just as soou as a liviug ca})tive had a niouey value 
greater tliau a scalp, it became to the iuterest of the lud- 
iaus to save, rather thau slay, those who fell iuto their 
hauds. To this extent the policy is to be hailed as a 
distinct melioration in the conduct of these barbiu'ous 
wars. 

Sad to relate, the terrible calamity which befell the 
people of Hover might have been averted by the timely 
deliverv of a letter. The design was disclosed to ^[ajor 
Henchman, at Chelmsford, who immediately informed 
the Massachusetts authorities of it. A letter containing 
this intelligi^nce, and writttvn by their order, was de- 
spatched to Major '\\'aldron on the day before the mas- 
sacre ; but owing to some delay to the courier at New- 
bury the. warning reached Dover some hours too late. 
AValdron in particular was notitied that he was a special 
object of vengeance. The feelings with which this let- 
ter was opened and read by his son may be imagined.^ 

» TuK lottor is iii Bolkuav's Setc Uami'shire, I.. AvhhmuUx. Tho fiieudly warning is 
said to have come from Wauivlaucet, sagnmore of Teunacook. 



m 

THE CAPTIVITY OF SARAH GERRISH 

Among the captives taken at the sacking of Dover 
was Major Waldron's little granddaughter, Sarah Ger- 
rish, a beautiful and interesting child, only seven years 
old, who slept at her grandfather's garrison on that 
fatal night. 

Waked out of a sound sleep by the strange noises in 
the house, Sarah sprang from her warm bed and ran, in 
a fright, into another room, where one of her little play- 
mates was sleeping. Child-like, the little simpleton 
crept into bed with her still more helpless neighbor, for 
mutual protection, pulling the bedclothes up over her 
head, as if imagining that in this way she might escape 
detection. With a beating heart she lay there listening 
to the muffled noises made by the savages in searching 
through the house. 

Her hiding-place was, however, soon discovered, and 
she was rudely commanded to get up and dress herself, 
which she very obediently did, though the savages hur- 
ried her out of doors before she had time to finish put- 
ting on her stockings. With one foot bare she was 
presently marched off with the rest of the captives into 
the wilderness, after seeing her grandfather's house 
plundered and burned before her eyes. 

According to their usual custom, when once clear of 
the village the different bands went their several ways, 



24 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

after dividing the prisoners and booty. Sarah appears 
to have gone with a party of Eastern Indians, doubtless 
belonging to some Maine tribe, to whose village she was 
first taken, and in which she remained till winter. 

Sarah's first master, one Sebundowit, a dull sort of 
fellow, was harsh, but not cruel. He, however, soon 
sold her to another Indian, who was both harsh and 
cruel, who carried her away to Canada to be sold. 

No tongue can tell the hardships which this child of 
tender years had to undergo during that long and terri- 
ble winter's march. Strong men have sunk down mider 
less than she endured, the petted darling of a once happy 
home, now made desolate. But a Protecting Arm seems 
to have sustained the little captive maiden when her feet 
were ready to fail her, and her heart to break, under the 
hardships of which she was the innocent object. 

At one time her wretch of a master told her to go and 
stand with her back against a particular tree, while he 
began loading his gun before her eyes, with tantalizing 
indifference. When the truth flashed upon the child's 
mind, and she shrieked out in mortal terror at the thought 
that her last hour was come, the hardened wretch, whose 
ferocious instincts seemed now and then to get the better 
of him, either relented or was satisfied with having at- 
tained his object in frightening her so cruelly. 

At another time, as they were ascending a river, her 
brute of a master ordered Sarah to run along the shore 
with some Indian girls, while he paddled on in his canoe. 
In this manner they had reached a spot where the bank 
was both high and steep, when one of Sarah's impish 
companions spitefully pushed the little white girl off 
the bank and into the river, leaving her to sink or swim 
as best she might. Fortunately the bushes here hung 



1680] THE CAPTIVITY OF SARAH GERRISH 25 

out over the water, so that when Sarah rose to the sur- 
face she was able to lay hold of them and draw herself 
out of the water by their aid. Otherwise she must cer- 
tainly have been drowned then and there. As it was, 
she rejoined her wolfish companions, wet to the skin, 
and frightened almost to death at her narrow escape. 
Yet when asked how she became so wet she dared not 
tell, for fear of meeting with still worse treatment from 
the Indian boys and girls, who were always very abusive 
to her. 

Once again, having fallen into a deep sleep at the end 
of a long and hard day's travel, Sarah did not wake when 
the party was ready to move off in the morning, so she 
was left asleep, half covered up with fresh-fallen snow, 
like another babe in the woods, without a morsel of food 
to eat or any guide by which to know what direction her 
heartless companions had taken. Upon waking to find 
herself left alone in that frightful wilderness, the poor 
little captive may well have given herself up for lost, for, 
strange to say, she seems to have been even more afraid 
of the bears and wolves of the forests than of her inhu- 
man captors. Terror sharpened her wits. Snow had 
fallen before the party set out, by which their tracks 
could be followed. Guided by these footprints in the 
snow, Sarah ran crying after them, until, after a long 
and weary chase, her tormentors let her come up with 
them again. 

Yet one more ordeal was contrived, with devilish in- 
genuity, to play upon poor little Sarah's fears. One 
evening the savages heaped together a great pile of dry 
brushwood, to which they set fire, and when it was in a 
light blaze Sarah's master called her to him, and told her 
that she must now be burned alive in the fire. For the 



26 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

moment the cliild was struck dumb. Tliou she burst 
into tears. Turning to the inhuman monster who claimed 
her, she flung her arms around his neck and besought 
him so piteously to spare her life that the hardened cut- 
throat so far relented as to agree not to bum her alive 
if she would promise to be a good girl. 

After escaping death by fire and water, Sarah reached 
Canada at last, where her sad story, no less than her 
bright face and Avinning ways, could not fail of exciting 
compassion. Indeed, it must have been a heart of stone 
not to have melted toward the friendless one. Her greedy 
master first took her to the Lord Intendant's, where 
much notice was taken of her by persons of quality. In 
the course of a week Sarah was bought by the Intend- 
ant's lady, who placed the child in a convent, where she 
Avas once more safe in the hands of Christians. Here 
she remained until the fleet of Sir William Phips came 
before Quebec, the next year, when through his means 
Sarah was exchanged, and returned to her friends again, 
after a captivity lasting sixteen months, into which years 
of suffering had been crowded.^ 

i Belknap tells the story briefly in a note, History of New Hampshire, I., 253. 
Phips had takeu some French prisoners while ou his way to besiege Quebec. 



TV 

PEMAQUID TAKEN; WITH THE RELATION OF JOHN 
GYLES 

August, 1689 

It was now St. Castin's turn to be revenged. True, 
an attempt had been made by the new rulers to pacify 
him with fair words, but all to no purpose. A more im- 
placable foe never devastated the border ; and though he 
dealt much with the English, by way of trade, being in 
no way averse to English gold, no hand was ever more 
ready to strike them than his. He had the twin pas- 
sions of a true Bernais — love of war and st. castin 
love of money. His is a strange, event- «* Penobscot, 
ful history. Beared a gentleman, and by profession a sol- 
dier, upon the disbanding of his regiment he had taken 
up the vagabond life of an Indian trader with as much 
facility as if he had never known any other ; had taken 
a chief's daughter to wife ; and had thus, to all intents, 
cast his fortunes for weal or woe among the filthy den- 
izens of the forest. And the erratic Baron La Hontan, 
soldier, traveller, and author of the most amusing memoirs 
in the world, roundly asserts that St. Castin was so much 
respected by his savage clansmen that they looked up to 
him as their tutelar deity. If report was true, he had 
amassed a fortune of two or three hundred thousand 
crowns in "good, dry gold" among them. No wonder, 
then, that he stood ready to draw his sword in their be- 
half. 



28 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1689 

Accordingly, tliere was much bustle of preparation at 
St. Castin's fort for the descent he meditated. This had 
for its object no less a place than the fort and settlement 
at Pemaquid, farthest outpost of the English dominions, 
in this direction, as Penobscot was of French power in 
Pemaquid and the otlicr. The distance between them 
Penobscot. ^^g Considerable, yet St. Castin's hatred 

would not have cooled, even if the distance had been ten 
times greater. 

When all was ready the war-party put off in their 
canoes. St. Castin and Father Thury, of the Indian 
mission, with the Abenaki chief Moxus, were the lead- 
ers. The scheme was a bold one, it must be confessed ; 
Moxus and SO bold, indeed, that there is little doubt 

Father Thury. q£ ^^iq invadcrs being well informed of the 
true state of the fort and garrison. Spies were sent 
ahead to New Harbor, an out-village of Pemaquid, to 
learn how the inhabitants disposed themselves in the 
da3^time, and how best to strike them unawares. 

The blow fell on one August afternoon in 1689. St. 
Castin's war-party gained the rocky shore undiscovered. 
They soon laid hands upon a white man, who disclosed 
the defenceless condition of the place. It was in har- 
vest time, when the unsuspecting settlers were busy, 
either in the fields or about the shores. The main vil- 
lage, in which only the women and children were left, 
lay about a quarter of a mile from the fort. The farms, 
where most of the men were at Avork, were three miles 
higher up, at the Falls. 

The assailants quickly arranged their plan of attack. 
One band threw itself between the fort and the village ; 
the other between the village and farms. Then the 
work of slaughter began. As the men at the farms ran 



1689] 



PEMAQUID TAKEN 



29 



for the fort, they found themselves cut off by the band 
below. In like manner, those in the village, who started 
for the fort, were mostly intercepted before reaching it. 




FORT AND APPROACHES, PEMAQUID, MB. 

The few who did so owed their safety to fleetness of 
foot. 

The assailants next turned their attention to the fort. 
A certain number threw themselves into some houses, 
standing along the street leading to it, from w^hich they 



30 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

fired on every one who showed himself. The high rock, 
as conspicuous an object to-day as it was then, also 
served to shelter more of them, who were thus advanced 
so near the walls as to be able to drive the gunners from 
their posts. 

Weems, the commander of the fort, held out until the 
next day, wlien having but fourteen out of thirty men 
left unhurt, besides being wounded himseK, he gave up 
the place on condition that the garrison should be al- 
Thefortsur- lowed to depart unmolested. Fort and 
renders. village Were then given to the fiames, 

after Avhich the Indians took to their canoes, with their 
captives and booty, greatly elated at their conquest of 
this stronghold of the English. 

The following relation, set forth by one of the cap- 
tives, describes in a graphic manner the onset at the 
Falls: 

" On the 2d of August, 1689, in the morning, my hon- 
ored father, Thomas Gyles, Esq., went with some labor- 
ers, my two older brothers and myself to one of his 
farms, which lay upon the river, about three miles above 
Fort Charles, at Pemaquid Falls, and we labored there 
securely till noon. After w^e hod dined, our people 
went to their labor, some in one field of English hay, 
some to another of English corn. My father, the 
youngest of my two brothers and myself tarried near 
the farm-house^ in which we had dined till about one of 
the clock, at which time we heard the report of several 
great guns at the fort. My father said he hoped it was 
a signal of good news, and that the great council had 
sent back the soldiers to cover the inhabitants (for on 
report of the revolution they had deserted). 

" But to our great surprise, about thirty or forty Ind- 



1689] PEMAQUID TAKEN 31 

ians at that moment discharged a volley of shot at us 
from behind a rising ground near our barn. The yelling 
of the Indians, the whistling of their shot, and the voice 
of my father, whom I heard cry out, ' AYhat now ! what 
now ! ' so terrified me (though he seemed to be handling 
a gun) that I endeavored to make my escape. My 
brother ran one way, and I another, and on looking over 
my shoulder I saw a stout fellow, all painted, pursuing 
me, with a gun in one hand and a cutlass glittering in the 
other, which I expected in my brains every moment. 

" I soon fell down, and the Indian seized me by the 
left hand. He offered me no abuse, but tied my arms, 
then lifted me up and pointed to the place Avhere the 
people were at work about the hay, and led me that 
way. As we went, we crossed the spot where my father 
was, who looked very pale and bloody, and walked very 
slowly. 

'* When we came to the place, I saw two men shot 
down on the flats, and one or two more knocked on the 
head with hatchets, while crying out, ' O, Lord ! O, 
Lord ! ' etc. There the Indians brought two more cap- 
tives, one a man, and the other my brother James, who, 
with me, had tried to escape by running from the house 
when we were first attacked. This brother was about 
fourteen years of age. My oldest brother, Thomas, won- 
derfully escaped by land to the Barbican, a point of land 
opposite the fort, where several fishing vessels lay. He 
got on board of one of them and sailed away that night. 

" After doing what mischief they could, the Indians sat 
down, and made us sit with them. After some time we 
arose, and the Indians pointed for us to go eastward. We 
marched about a quarter of a mile and then made a halt. 
Here they brought my father to us. They made propo- 



32 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

sals to liim by old Moxus, who told liim that those were 

strange Indians who shot him, and that he was sorry 

for it. My father replied that he was a 

Moxus is sorry. ^ . , , , „ i , , 

dying man, and wanted no lavor but to 
pray with his children. This being granted, he com- 
mended us to the protection and blessing of God Al- 
mighty ; then gave us his best advice and took his leave 
of us for this life, hoping that we should meet in a better. 

" He parted from us with a cheerful voice, but looked 
very pale, by reason of his great loss of blood, which 
now gushed out of his shoes. The Indians then led 
him aside. I heard the blows of the hatchet, but neither 
shriek nor groan. 

"The Indians led us, on the east side of the river, 
toward the fort, and when we came within a mile and a 
half of the fort and town, we saw fire and smoke rising 
on all sides. Here we made a short stop, and then 
moved on to within three-quarters of a mile from the 
fort, into a thick swamp. There I saw my mother and 
my two little sisters, and many other captives taken from 
the town. My mother asked me about my father. I told 
her he was killed, but could say no more for grief. She 
burst into tears, and the Indians moved me a little far- 
ther off, and seized ^ me with cords to a tree. 

"After the Indians had laid Pemaquid waste they 
moved up to New Harbor, about two miles farther east. 
Embark at At this place there were, before the w^ar, 

New Harbor. about twelve houses. These were deserted 
as soon as the rumor of war reached the place. When we 
turn'ed our backs on the town my heart was ready to break. 
We tarried that night at New Harbor, and the next day 
went away in the Indians' canoes for Penobscot. 

1 A SEAFARING expression for tied him up. 



1689] * PEMAQUID TAKEN 33 

" A few days after we arrived at Penobscot fort/ where 
I again saw my mother, my brother and sisters, and 
many other captives. I think we tarried here eight 
days. In that time the Jesuit of the place had a 
great mind to buy me. My Indian master made a visit 
to the Jesuit, and took me with him. Antipathy to 
I saw the Jesuit show my master pieces • Jes"its. 

of gold, and understood afterward that he was tender- 
ing them for my ransom. He gave me a biscuit, which 
I put in my pocket, and not daring to eat it, I buried it 
under a log, fearing he had put something in it to make 
me love him. "When my mother heard the talk of my 
being sold to a Jesuit, she said to me, ' Oh, my dear 
child, if it were God's will, I had rather follow you to 
your grave, or nevermore see you in this world, than 
that you should be sold to a Jesuit ; for a Jesuit will 
ruin you body and soul.' 

"It pleased God to grant her request, for she never 
saw me more. Yet she and my two little sisters were, 
after several years' captivity, redeemed ; but she died 
ere I returned. My brother, who was taken with me,- 
was, after several years' captivity, most barbarously tort- 
ured to death by the Indians. 

" My Indian master carried me up Penobscot Kiver to 
MadaAvamkee,'^ which stands on a point of land between 
the main river and a branch which heads to the east of 
it. At home I had ever seen strangers treated with the 
utmost civility, and I expected like treatment here ; but 
I soon found out my mistake ; for I pres- 

1 i! Ill Madawamkee. 

ently saw a number oi squaws, who had 

got together in a circle, dancing and yelling. An old 

grim-looking hag took me by the hand, and leading me 

> Now Castine, Me. 2 Mattawamkkag is probably meant. 

3 



34 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1G89 

into the ring, some seized me by the hair, and others by 
the hands and feet, like so many furies ; but my master 
presently laying down a pledge, they released me.^ 

" The next day we went up that eastern branch of Pe- 
nobscot Eiver many leagues ; carried OA^erland to a large 
pond, and from one pond to another, till, in a few days 
more, we went down a river called Medocktec, which 
empties into St. John Pviver. But before we came to 
the mouth of this river, we passed over a 
long carrying-place to Medocktec fort,^ 
which stands on a bank of St. John Eiver. My mas- 
ter went before, and left me with an old Indian and two 
or three squaws. The old man often said (which was 
all the English he could speak), ' By and by come to a 
great town and fort.' I now comforted myself in think- 
ing how finely I should be refreshed when I came to 
this great town. 

" After some miles' travel we came in sight of a large 
cornfield, and soon after of the fort, to my great sur- 
prise. Two or three squaws met us, took off my pack, 
and led me to a large hut or wigwam, where thirty or 
forty Indians were dancing and yelling round five or six 
poor cajDtives, who had been taken some months before 
from Quochecho,^ at the time Major Waldron was so 
barbarously butchered by them. 

" After some weeks had passed, Ave left this village and 
went up the St. John Eiver about ten miles, to a branch 
called Medockcenecasis, where there was one wigwam. 
At our arrival an old squaw saluted me with a yell, tak- 

' The owner of a captiye might ransom him from torture in this way. if so inclined. 
Otherwise the custom was to first hand him over to the squaws, and afterward to the 
warriors. 

2 Medoctec, a Malicite village on the St. John River. 

' CocHECO, the Indian name of Dover, N. H. The complicity of these Indians in that 
affair is thus proven. 



1689] PEMAQUID TAKEN 35 

ing me by the hair and one hand, but I was so rude as 
to break her hold and free myself. She gave me a filthy 
grin, and the Indians set up a laugh, and so it passed 
over. Here we lived upon fish, wild grapes, roots, &c., 
which was hard living to me. 

" "When the winter came on we went up the river till 
the ice came down, running thick in the river, when, ac- 
cording to the Indian custom, we laid up our canoes till 
spring. Then we travelled sometimes on the ice and 
sometimes on the land, till we came to a river that 
was open, but not fordable, where we made a raft and 
passed over, bag and baggage. I met with no abuse 
from them in this winter's hunting, though put to great 
hardships in carrying burdens, and for want of food. 
But they endured the same difficulty, and would often 
encourage me by saying in broken English, ' By and by 
great deal moose.'" ^ 

1 After spending six years in captivity among the Indians of the St. John River, 
young G-yles was sold to a French trader of that river, with whom he lived nearly three 
years longer. He was not released until tlie peace of Ryswick, thus having been almost 
nine years a captive. Gyles subsequently became a partisan officer of much merit, his 
knowledge of the Indian tongue, gained during his captivity, standing him in good stead. 
The Memoir from which the above extracts are taken, and put into coherent form, was 
first printed at Boston in 1736. In a copy which belonged to Dr. Belknap, now in the 
Boston Public Library, there is a note, in Dr. Belknap's hand, on the fly-leaf, ascribing 
the authorship to Joseph Seccombe, chaplain to the garrison at St. Georges, afterward 
miuister of Kingston, N. H. It is a wretched piece of work, whoever wrote it. 



CHURCH'S FIRST EXPEDITION 

September, 1689 

After the fall of Pemaquid all the English settlements 
east of Casco, or Falmouth, Avere hurriedly abandoned, 
and this place now became the rallying point for the 
fugitives, who were still laboring under the evil effects 
of the panic, into which the enemy's successes had 
thrown them. 

Aroused by the pressing natm*e of the emergency, the 
Massachusetts authorities, responding to the cries for 
help coming from all quarters at once, promptly called 
out six hundred men, who took up their line of march 
Swaine's march, from the rendezvous, at Berwick, on Au- 
August28th. g^-igt 28, 1689, to clear the border of ene- 
mies, strengthen the weak garrisons, and restore the 
failing courage of the inhabitants as they went. Major 
Jeremiah Swaine,^ a good officer, was in command of 
this small army. 

This was not done a moment too soon, as the daring 
enemy were now hovering about every settlement on the 
Blue Point and ^oast, f rom Berwick to Falmouth, killing, 
Falmouth re= Scalping, and burning on every side, until 
iieved. Swaine's advance drove them back into 

the woods. At Blue Point,^ in Scarborough, there was 
a smart skirmish, and when the troops reached Fal- 

1 SwAiNE was of Reading, Mass. 

2 SiNCK called Pine Point. Swaine urged holding the fort at Saco Falls on account of 
the saw and grist mill there. Letter of September 24, 1689. 



1689] 



CHURCH'S FIRST EXPEDITION 



37 



mouth they found that place as good as invested by 
the enemy, who made a sharp fight, in which ten soldiers 
were killed, before being driven off the ground. 

Having done the work assigned him in this direction, 
and put new life into the desponding settlers, Swaine 




^^,.v;tU^ 



COLONEL BENJAMIN CHURCH. 



marched back to Berwick the way he came. His march, 
back and forth, disclosed the weakness of the whole 
system of defence; for Swaine had no Durham 

sooner uncovered the towns in his rear, attacked. 

after taking with him every available man that could be 
spared, than the Indians swooped down upon Durham, 



38 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

N. H./ killing eighteen men, murdering three or four 
children, and carrying ojff several persons into captivity.'- 

Swaine immediately despatched a strong scouting 
party toward Lake Winnipesaukee to hunt the assassins 
down, but, as usual, no Indians could be found, and the 
party returned empty-handed. These operations ter- 
minated Swaine's share in this campaign. 

While putting forth these efforts to hold what was left 
of Maine, Massachusetts called the United Colonies^ to 
her aid. A second expedition, acting in concert with 
Swaine's, but designed to carry the war into the dev- 
astated region, east of Falmouth, was raised chiefly in 
Plymouth Colony, and put under the command of Major 
Church, the tried veteran of Philip's War. A part of the 
two hundred and fifty men enlisted for this service were 
Church takes Secouuet and Cape Cod Indians, some of 
the field. wliom had been out with Church before. 

They were true Indians. During their stay in Boston 
they had even sold their powder-horns and bullet- 
pouches to get money to squander for drink. Then the 
ammunition furnished was not of proper size to fit the 
bore of the guns. All this seems to have been unknown to 
Church, until the moment when he was going into action.^ 

' UecALLT called Oyster River in the accounts of these wars. 

2 This bloody affair took place at Iluckins's garrison. Seeing all the men go out to 
work in the morning, the Indians ran between them and the house, killing all but one, 
who made his escape. They then attacked the house, in which there were only two boys, 
with some women and children. The boys kept them off for some time, and wounded 
several of them. At length the Indians set the house on fire, but even then these brave 
boys would not surrender until the Indians had promised to spare their lives. The 
wretches, however, immediately murdered three or four of the children, one of whom was 
impaled on a sharp stake before the eyes of its horrified mother. One of the boysescaped 
the next day.— Belknap, Neio JTampshire, I., 255, ed. 1792. 

3 A UNION formed by Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut in 1643 
for mutual defence. 

* The expedition was not half supplied with clothing, medicines, or provisions, and 
yet this was the season of autumnal storms. 



1689] CHURCH'S FIRST EXPEDITION 39 

Embarking at Boston, the expedition arrived at Fal- 
mouth on Friday, September 20, 1689. Immediately 
upon coming into the harbor Church found work ready 
cut out for him. He was hailed from a vessel and told 
that large numbers of Indians had been seen gathering 
on one of the neighboring islands, as if getting ready to 
make a descent. On board of a vessel lying at anchor, 
Church found a Mrs. Lee,i a redeemed QetstoFai- 
captive, who said that she had counted mouth, septem- 
fifty canoes, and knew that more were ex- 
pected. To resist this formidable horde there were only 
two companies of soldiers in the fort and garrisons, 
besides the handful of inhabitants. Church had not 
come a moment too soon. 

As soon as it was dark, Church landed his men, fully 
intending to go in search of these marauders at day- 
break ; but they saved him the trouble by coming up 
close to the neck, on which the village stood, some time 
during the night ; so that the morning found them hold- 
ing a position to cut off all retreat by land, whenever, 
they advanced to attack the village. 

In fact, when the sun was about an hour high, firing 
was heard in the direction of Anthony Brackett's farm- 
house,^ situated over against the neck, on the westerly 
side of a cove making in from the sea. Presently Brack- 
ett's son came running into the village with the news 
that the farm was swarming with strange Indians, who 
had taken his father prisoner. His own escape was 
owing to his fleetness of foot. 

Though completely taken at a disadvantage. Church 
acted with promptitude and vigor. First, sending off 

1 A MARRIED daughter of Major Waldron, taken at Dover, N. H. 

2 Since the property of the Deering family. 



40 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1089 

oue company belonging to me garrison, he followed it 
with one of his own, expecting to send in the rest as 
soon as they could be got ready. It being low tide, the 
two advance companies crossed the cove, and were im- 
The enemy's at- mediately hotly engaged in and about 
tack repulsed. Brackett's field and orchard, thus put- 
ting the cove between them and their comrades. Instead 
of coming promptly to their relief with his whole force, 



Brc.cKci'fcs House \ 



o" 




''^ AfEcx/ 








PLAN OF FALMOUTH NECK. POKTLAND. 



Church now made the startling discovery that the bullets 
w^ere too large for the guns, causing a long delay, while 
the bullets were being hammered into slugs, and putting 
the small detachment, then fighting against great odds, 
Church's critical in danger of being cut *to pieces before 
situation. j^gjp cQuld reach them. AVhen these lag- 

gards did come up, the}^ found themselves cut off from 
their hard-pressed comrades by the rising tide. They, 



1G89] CHURCH'S FIRST EXPEDITION 41 

however, opened a random fire across the cove. Church 
at length reached the spot. Seeing the danger his men 
were in, he succeeded in getting across the cove with 
his main body, higher up, and decided the combat by 
coming down on the enemy's flank. They then fled in 
confusion. 

This fight, really forced upon Church before he 
was ready, or acquainted with the ground, was credit- 
able only to the small number, who bore the brunt of it 
for several hours without flinching. It saved Casco, but 
did not help Chui-ch's reputation. His loss was twenty- 
one killed and wounded.^ As the enemy followed their 
old custom of carrying off the dead and „. . 

„ , His losses. 

wounded, no estimate of their loss was 
possible. It was enough that they confessed defeat 
by making a precipitate retreat. That the battle was 
unexpectedly thrust upon Church is true ; but that 
such an old campaigner as he should take the field so 
wretchedly equipped is certainly surprising. 

By those who first faced the foe, the battle was 
gallantly, even desperately, fought. Among them, the 
inhabitants came in for a full share of the credit for the 
victory. There is a touch of humor in what Church 
says in his despatches ^ in regard to the fighting parson 
of Falmouth. " As for the minister of this place," the 
honest soldier declares, " I am well satisfied with him, 
he being present with us yesterday in the fight." 

Having disposed of this body of enemies, who were 
probably ignorant of his arrival when they began their 
unsuccessful onset, Church now found himself at lib- 



1 A LIST of these will be found in S. G-. Drake's A(iditi07is to Baylies'e New Plymouth, 
p. 77. 
•a Dated at Falmouth, September 22, 1689. 



42 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1689 

ertj to carry out his favorite idea of tracking the sav- 
ages to their villages and striking them there. There 
were two of these on the Androscoggin, and as many 
more on the Kennebec, situated far enough inland not 
to be easily assailable, yet near enough to the sea to be 
dangerous neighbors. It was from these Indians that 
the English had most to fear, and it was they, no doubt, 
who had taken the lead in the recent assault. 

Owing chiefly to the want of proper guides, nearly a 
month passed before Church was ready to set forth on 
this errand. Moving his force up to the head of Maquoit 
Ba}" by vessel, he struck across the great Indian portage 
uniting the waters of Casco Bay with those of the Andros- 
Maquoit coggiu, comiug out ou the banks of the 

Portage. Androscoggiu at a point some forty miles 

below the Indian fort at which he was aiming. He 
found the low country everywhere flooded by the au- 
tumnal freshets. Abandoning his first design, he there- 
fore turned down the river, marching on until his vessels 
took him up again in the Kennebec. He then set sail 
for Pemaquid, where his men did some scouting, but 
could find no Indians. All the fresh trails led east- 
ward, thus indicating that the enemy's war-parties had 
drawn off from their inroads for the season. After tak- 
ing on board some of the heavy guns belonging to the 
ruiued fort, Church therefore sailed back to Casco, in a 
storm, and the campaign closed without a solitary ex- 
ploit to its credit except the relief of Casco.^ 

1 CHtTKOH's History contains a lengthy, but rambling, account of his operations. 
Letters from him, written from Falmouth at the time, are much more coherent. See 
Additions to Baylies's New Plymouth. 



VI 

FRONTENAC'S WINTER RAIDS 

March, 1690 

Aftee this war liad been going on for a year or more 
with the Indians alone, a new enemy suddenly appeared 
ill the French, who, from this time forward, became 
open enemies, instead of the secret ones they had been. 
War had been formally declared between the two crowns, 
England and France, and the colonies of war with 

both mnst now bear their part in it.^ It *'''^"^^- " 

is true that some sensible men had thought of a neutrality 
for the colonies, as being a far more rational course 
than cutting each other's throats without contributmg 
one iota to the final result between the great belliger- 
ents But this wise and eminently humane idea did 
not meet with favor either at the French court or from 
the man now at the head of affairs in Canada. There 
were fifty reasons why Louis should desire the conquest 
of New England, to one why England c^;;^^^^"^°* 

should wish to possess Canada, which at menace . 

that day she had no use for, and certainly did not covet 
Control of the fisheries, control of the Indian trade, but 
more especially control over the one great gate-way to 
Canada-the St. Lawrence-were the foremost of these 
reasons. 

1 WAK was declared at NYestminster, April, 16S9 ; at Boston not until December. 



44 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [WM 

On the other hand, New England asked only to be let 
alone. There was then no snch thing as an American 
No American colonial policj, although war between 
policy. the two great powers most interested in 

America was as certain to create one as that the sun 
rose and set. This conflict, w^hich the French sought 
to bring about and New England wished to avoid, may 
be set down, therefore, as the beginning of the end. 

The long series of hostilities, of which we are now at 
the beginning, should not be regarded, therefore, as so 
many hap-hazard blows struck in the dark, but as an 
issue to be fought out to the bitter end, or until one or 
the other adversary surrendered at discretion. 

Count Frontenac, the man on whose shoulders Louis 
had twice put the burden of saving Canada, was beyond 
question without his equal as a commander in all the 
colonies. Though now seventy, he was to all appear- 
count ^^ce as vigorous in mind and body as 

Frontenac. evcr. To a military training in the best 

schools of Europe he added the genius of audacity — 
the quick and brilliant conceptions which mark the 
great soldier. It was this rare quality which made him 
by far the most dangerous enemy that New England 
ever had. None knew better than he the advantage of 
carrying the war into the enemy's country, or of strik- 
ing a disabling blow Avhen your adversary least expects 
it ; and while the English thought that winter, with its 
rigors, had put a stop to warlike movements, Frontenac 
was raising war-parties to distress them to the utmost. 
In a few short years he could say, as his master said of 
the Pyrenees, "there is no longer a wilderness." 

By furnishing a few ambitious French officers to lead 
his war-parties, composed mainly of savages, Frontenac 



1690] FRONTENAC'S WINTER RAIDS 45 

made the most of liis means, without exposing himself 
to great loss, besides, in a manner, dignifying these de- 
scents with a character they were far from deserving, as 
they were neither more nor less than de- Make up of 

liberately planned raids for robbery and war=parties. 
murder. We cannot, therefore, in conscience find a 
place of honor for such deeds, although narrating their 




SAMUEL SEW ALL, 



injurious effects. Frontenac thought much of crippling 
his enemies, but cared little for the means ; and it is to 
his eternal disgrace that he inaugurated the policy of 
indiscriminate massacre, which put him on a level with 
the savages he employed.^ 

1 It is claimed that this was done in retaliation for outrages committed by the Iro- 
quois in Canada. But the Iroquois also were savages, neither governed by the rules 
of civilized war, nor led by English officers. 



46 



THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 



[1690 



Frontenac had planned three expeditions, one against 
Schenectady, and two against New England. It was in 
the heart of winter, when nobody dreamed of an out- 
break, that the three war-parties set out on their errand 
of destruction. In February, news of the atrocious mas- 
sacres at Schenectady sent a thrill of horror through- 
out the colonies, and served to put the exposed east- 
weak defensive ^rn Settlements somewhat on their guard. 
"ne. i^ii^ this line was much too long and too 

thin not to be easily broken through, as it consisted of 
villages situated ten, twenty, and thirty miles apart, con- 
nected only by occasional patrols. The horsemen were 
of course compelled to keep to the few highways, which 
were easily avoided, while the footmen, who ranged 

the woods looking for 
fresh tracks of an enemy, 
often had to force their 
way through swamps 
and thickets where the 
foot of man had never 
trod before. 

The venerable Samuel 
Sewall relates that he 
was present at a "treat" 
or social gathering in 
Boston when the news 
of the shocking calam- 
ity at Schenectady came 
to cast its withering 
blight over the spirits of 
all the company. It was 
a premonition of the coming storm which cast its dark 
shadow before. It was a season of gloomy foreboding. 




LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR STOUGHTON. 



1690] 



FRONTENAC'S WINTER RAIDS 



47 



" Mr. Danfortli looks very sorrowfully. Mr. Stoughton 
thinks best to prosecute vigorously," are simple words, 
pregnant with mean 



mg. 

The second expedi- 
tion, numbering only 
fiftj^-two men, one half 
Canadian bushrangers, 
and one half savages, 
were toiling on through 
snow and ice toward 
the New England coast. 
Fran9ois Hertel was in 
command, with Hope- 
hood, a Norridgewock 
chief, to direct the sav- 
ages.^ 

On the 27th of 
March, 1690, the in- 
vaders came out of the 
woods near Salmon 
Falls, a little villaofe 




CANADIAN SNOWSHOE EANGER. 



situated on the west bank of the stream dividing Maine 
from New Hampshire. Like Dover, of which it was then 
a part, Salmon Falls had grown up around Salmon 

the falls, which furnished excellent mill- f"""*- 

sites ; and lumber was here cut, saw^ed, and rafted down 
the river for shipment abroad. At the time Hertel ap- 
proached it a more dismal landscape could scarcely have 
met the eye, for in that bleak season winter still obsti- 
nately disputes the advance of spring. 

I Hertel had with him three of his sons and two nephews, namely, the Sieur Cre- 
vier. Seigneur of St. Francis and the Siour Gatineau. His party set out from Trois 
Rivieres. 



48 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1690 

Upon reconnoitring, Hertel's scouts found no watch 
kept. The advantage of coming on the place by surprise 
decided Hertel to attack, small as his force was. At 
daybreak, therefore, having previously divided it into 
three parties, the assault biegan on the three garrison- 
houses, placed to cover the rest of the village. 

Though taken by surprise, the garrisons were stoutly 
defended, but in the end were forced to surrender one 
after another. After this success the enemy made short 
work of the undefended farmhouses and mills, first plun- 
Hertei dering, then burning them, with the barns 

destroys It. ^nd their contents, live stock included. 

Every species of property was swept away. Thirty of 
the bravest inhabitants w^ere killed, and fifty-four made 
prisoners, chiefly women and children. No place could 
have been more thoroughly laid desolate.^ 

Upon an alarm that the English were coming to attack 
him, Hertel began his retreat. He was pursued b}- a 
hundred and forty men, hastily collected from the near- 
est towns, who came up with him at Wooster Kiver, in 
Combat at Berwick, where the stream was crossed by 

Wooster River. ^ narrow bridge. Hertel halted his men 
on the farther side, faced about, and succeeded in keep- 
ing his eager pursuers back until darkness put an end 
to the combat. 

Both sides lost a few men, the English suffering the 
most, as they were the assailants. They gave up the 
pursuit here, and Hertel continued his retreat. 

Hertel now struck across the country to the Kennebec. 
Upon reaching it he learned that Frontenac's second 
war-party, reinforced from the Kennebec villages, and 

^ Maxmchusetts Archives. Sewall's account was obtained from a "Frenchman, 
taken while making up his pack." 



1690] 



FRONTENAC'S WINTER RAIDS 



49 



by St. Castin and his warriors from the Penobscot, had 
passed down the river shortly before, on their way to 
attack Casco.^ Leaving his wounded at the Abenaki 
village, Hertel set out to join the others, who, with this 
addition to their force, mustered from four to live hun- 
dred men. Portnenf '^ was the commander, ably second- 



f 




WENTWORTH GARRISON, SALMON FALLS, N. H. 



ed by Courtemanche, Hertel, St. Castin, Madockawan- 
do, Hopehood, the two Doneys, and others — a truly 
formidable array of the most crafty and relentless ma- 
rauders ever sent out on the war-path. 

1 The garrison was not without warning of this. Captain Willard, who was then in 
command, wrote, April 9, 1690, to the authorities at Boston, giving an account of the 
danger they were in, thirty Indian canoes having been seen in the bay, besides several 
fires on the shore. This was six weeks before the assault took place, and shows that 
one of the enemy's detachments was waiting for the others to join it. The ehemy 
also had made a descent at Wells, April 3, burning a saw-mill find several houses there 
" Council ordered 120 men sent out of Essex to tlieir relief." — Seioall Papers. 

■■* Third son of the Baron de Becancour. 

4 



50 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1690 

Though only a poor village, Casco was one of the 
strategic points essential to be held if a foothold Avas to 
be retained in eastern Maine, the more so since the fall 
Fort Loyal, of Pemaquid had left Casco an outpost. 

Casco. Yov defence, there was Fort Loyal, a pick- 

eted enclosure, built on a low bluff at the seaside, and 
mounting a few light guns to command the approach as 
well by water as by land. A portion of the regular gar- 
rison were gone out on a scouting expedition, and Cap- 
tain Sylvanus Davis, the commander at this moment, 
had just reported the works to be in a very bad condi- 
tion. 

Taking everything into account, the enemy could not 
have made their appearance at a worse time. 

Outside the fort four garrison houses served as so 
many rallying points for the village, which lay in a 
natural depression, around the fort, with its rough clear- 
ings reaching back to the surrounding forests. Such as 
they were, fort and village covered but an insignificant 
space on the peninsula, now Portland, which, at most 
points, rose high above the water, and in some was even 
inaccessible. 

At this time the number of inhabitants was some- 
what increased by the fugitives who had been driven 
from the settlements farther east. Including this small 
Portneufat- garrisou, there were, in all, about a hun- 
tacksit. dred able-bodied men in the place when 

Portneuf came before it, on May 25, 1690. An ambus- 
cade was quickly formed on the brow of Munjoy Hill, 
the lofty elevation terminating the peninsula at the 
northeast. All this passed without discovery. 

Without doubt, Portneuf intended to throw his whole 
force upon the village before the unsuspecting inhabi- 



1690] FRONTENAC'S WINTER RAIDS 51 

tants were stirring in the morning, as Hertel had done 
at Salmon Falls. The terror and confusion of a sur- 
prise would do the rest. But this purpose was frustrated 
through the eagerness of some of his outlying Indian 
scouts, who waylaid and shot Robert Greason, a settler, 
as he was passing toward the village. They then raised 
their scalp halloa. This put the English on the alert. 
Thirty of them immediately started off on a scout in the 
direction of the firing. Mounting the hillside, they 
pressed on across the clearings, into a lane, fenced at 
both sides, which led to a block-house,^ standing at the 
skirt of the woods. It was noticed that the cattle, turned 
out to pasture, instead of quietly grazing were all staring 
in the same direction, a sure sign that all was not as it 
should be. Instead, however, of acting upon the warn- 
ing thus plainly given them by these dumb sentinels, 
the impetuous assailants dashed headlong into the am- 
buscade ; and, while penned up in the lane, they received 
a murderous volley, almost at the muzzles of the en- 
emy's guns, which brought thirteen to the ground and 
put the rest in disorder. The enemy then sprang from 
their coverts, behind the fences, and fell with swords 
and hatchets upon the survivors, only four of whom suc- 
ceeded in regaining the fort, and they were wounded. 

Elated by this success, the invaders then rushed into 
the village. The undefended houses were easily carried, 
but the assailants met with such a rough reception at 
the garrisons that they were obliged to draw off at night- 
fall, and Portneuf even began to doubt his ability to 
take the fort. 

The English, however, were convinced of their inabil- 
ity to withstand another onset. The loss of so many of 

1 This block-house was evidently left unguarded. 



52 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1690 

their best men thus early in the fight had seriously crip- 
pled them. Under cover of the darkness those in the 
garrisons therefore quietly withdrew to the fort. In the 
morning, finding the village deserted, the enemy first 
plundered and then burned it. Having carried the out- 
works, they then advanced to attack the fort. In re- 
connoitring it a deep gully was found running within 
fifty yards of the stockade, in which the besiegers, com- 
pletely sheltered from the fire of the fort, could inflict 
considerable loss on the garrison. Its fire was, however, 
too hot to venture upon a direct assault. Portneuf, there- 
fore, set his men to Avork digging a trench up to the pali- 
sade, with tools found in sacking the village. Meantime 
firing was kept up on both sides night and day. That 
from the fort, however, did not prevent the Avork of zig- 
zagging toward the stockade from being pushed rapidly 
forward ; and, though wholly unused to this species of 
warfare, both French and Indians labored so industri- 
ously with pick and shovel that on the third day the 
besiegers were close under the palisade. Portneuf then 
summoned Davis to surrender. Davis, expecting the 
return of his detachment, demanded a truce of six days. 
This being refused, fighting was resumed. The besiegers 
could now throw hand grenades over the stockade into 
the fort, while their fire, kej^t up under cover of the 
trenches, grew more and more destructive. As the end 
drew near they grew more bold. A barrel of tar, with 
other combustibles, was pushed up against the stockade 
in readiness for firing. 

Seeing the moment of assault at hand, and fear- 
ing to risk its result, Davis hoisted the white flag. Up 
to this time he supposed he had to do only with savages. 
Knowing them to be utterly faithless, he demanded to 



18901 PRONTBNACS WINTBE RAIDS 53 

know if there were auy Freuckmeu a.uong them. Bemg 
auLered in the affirmative he insisted on t-^-J » 
the surrender of the fort with them -1^- ^e stipu at^ 
that all within the fort, men, women, or chikUen, ^ell 
wounded, should have good quarter, be THe^rtis 

allowed to depart unharmed, and be lur- 
Sred with a Safeguard as far as the next Enghsh °wn 
D-ivis would not be satisfied, he says, until, at his de 
maid the French officers swore "by the ever living 
God" to fulfil these conditions to the letter. 
% were shamefully violated. Instead of finding tke 
promised protection the survivors were abandoned to 
Tie fury o the Indians, who wreaked their vengeance 
unchecked' Davis's indignant remonstrances were 
Teated wih derision. He was told that he was a rebel 
Ind traitor to his king, as if that fact, were it tn«,, ab- 
solved Ms captors from all pledges. After plundering 
Wort the inUrs set it on fire, and it was soon burned 
to the ground, leaving Casco untenanted, save by the 
nnburied bodies of the slain. 

Frrnch accounts make no mention of this act of treach- 
ery Charlevoix. adds, however, that the place .as 
cLely evacuated when four English vessels hove m 
sight bringing a reinforcement for the garrison. See- 
ng no flag^Bg, those on board understood that they 
had come too late, and after waiting some time in vain 
or a signal from the shore they stood off to sea again 
The toss of this post threatened to lead to the total 
depopulation of Maine. As it was, all the garrisons as 
t'as Wells withdrew in a panic to that place, where 
they were hastily reinforced and ordered to make a 

. HO .^ c,e.r e.tl„.te o, t.e ,o,.s is ,«»in,«. CharUvo. p.ts the „u..e. 
of prlsonerB at seventy, without counting women or oh.ldren. 



54 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1690 

stand. ^ This left the savages free to overrun the New 
Hampshire border undisturbed. A war-party, under 
Hopehood, fell upon Fox Point in Newington, slew 
Fox Point, N. H., fourteen persons, carried off six, and 
harried. bumed Several houses. They were pur- 

sued by Captains Floyd and Greenleaf, were overtaken 
and compelled to leave behind some of their captives 
and booty. Early in July eight persons were killed 
while mowing in a field near Lamprey Kiver (Newmar- 
ket), and a lad taken. On the next day Hilton's garri- 
Newmarket and SOU at Exeter was assaulted, but was saved 
Exeter. ^^j g^ timely reinforcement.^ On the sixth, 

two companies, who were out searching for the maraud- 
ers, had for some hours a severe fight with them at 
Wheelwright's Pond, in Lee, in which Captain Wiswall, 
his lieutenant, sergeant, and twelve besides, were killed, 
and several more wounded. Floyd, the other captain, 
kept up the fight some time longer, but was finally 
Captain Wiswall driven off the ground. The victors then 
killed. went westward, leaving a bloody track as 

they went, no less than forty people having fallen vic- 
tims to their rage in one week. Such were the immedi- 
ate results of Frontenac's two war-parties. 

» Captain Stlvanus Davis's Narrative is in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Collections, 3d Series, Vol. I. What relates to the siege is very brief. He says he 
told Frontenac that his war-parties were no better than robbers and cut-throats. 
Charlevoix, II., 52, has the fullest French account of the two descents. La Hontan 
adds a little, and La Potherie a little. Mather, Jfagnalia, II., 603, has the fullest 
English account. 

2 Belknap relates that one of the relieving party, Simon Stone, received nine 
gun-shot wounds and two strokes of a hatchet. When his friends came to bury him, 
signs of life were perceived, and by the use of restoratives the wounded man revived, 
to the amazement of all. See Sewall, I., 325. 



vn 

PHIPS TAKES PORT ROYAL,^ BUT FAILS AT QUEBEC 

May— October, 1690 

Up to this time the people of New England seem to 
have had no thought of invading Canada themselves, or 
felt much fear of being invaded from there. Thus far 
the war, on their part, had been a purely defensive one. 
But it was now clear to everyone that the real struggle 
was not so much between the English and Indians, as 
between the English and French, who kept the Indians 
constantly supplied Avith the means of carrying on hos- 
tilities, while enjoying entire immunity from its ravages 
themselves. The relation was as close as that betAveen 
the hand and the weapon. Two flourishing provinces 
lay at the mercy of hostile incursions, which no power 
could foresee or prevent. The entire depopulation of 
both was imminent. All this continual harrying of de- 
fenceless villages, with its ever-recurring and revolting 
story, of captivity and massacre, was fast turning the 
border back into a wilderness, which, indeed, was what 
the enraged savages aimed at. Every attempt to reach 
and destroy these vigilant foemen in their own fastnesses 
proved worse than futile. New England was losing ten 
lives for one ; and in property more than fifty to one. 

This being so, the plan of striking at the root of the 
evil was wisdom itself. True, the difficulties in the way 

1 So named by Champlain, 1604, on account of its spacious anchorage. 



56 



THE JJOilDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 



[1690 



of successfully assailing Cauada were wellnigh insur- 
mountable. Nature herself seemed to have set up an 
impassable barrier between the belligerents ; but no 
sooner was the necessity realized, than all obstacles 




rniPS RAISINH THE SUNKEN TKEASURE. 



vanished before that spirit of stern determination with 
which the New Englanders were accustomed to grapple 
with the most arduous undertakings. 

But hostile incursions from Canada were not the only 
evils to be redressed with the strong hand. Injuries 
scarcely less vexatious had long been accumulating in 



1690] PHIPS TAKES PORT ROYAL 57 

another quarter, -where no wiklernesses forbade a set- 
tlement of the account. For years Acadia and its har- 
bors had been a safe retreat for privateers Acadia a nest 
and corsairs, who robbed and ill-used the of corsairs. 

New England fishermen until those seas were become 
no longer safe. Bad as it had been, the evil was now 
made tenfold worse by a state of war. For depredations 
of this sort Acadia, or Nova Scotia, is remarkably well 
placed, and as New England subsisted mostly by her 
fisheries the alternatives were either to see them de- 
stroyed or to put them beyond the reach of future spo- 
liation. 

Early in the spring of 1690, before Casco had been 
assailed, an expedition sailed from Boston to attack 
Port Boyal, the chief seaport of Acadia, where a French 
garrison was kept. Sir William Phips,^ a man whose 
simple force of character had raised him sirwiiiiam 
from poverty to affluence, and from an hum- Phips. 

ble ship-carpenter to Knighthood, was put in command. 
His popularity, no doubt, contributed much toward set- 
ting the little squadron of eight vessels and seven or 
eight hundred men afloat ; but his appointment was a 
wdde departure from the traditions of the colony and 
province, where social rank had always been considered 
indispensable to high command.^ 

As this was the first venture of the kind in which 
New England had ever engaged, the result port Royai 

w^as awaited in painful suspense. Phips taken. 

was, how^ever, completely successful. Port Eoyal sub- 

1 Consult Mather's and Bowen's biographies. Mather is too laudatory. Phips was 
a in-ot6ge of the two Mathers. 

2 Up to this time Sir William does not seem to have been even a freeman of the 
colony, by the following entry in Sewall's Dairy, viz.: " Saturday, March 22, 1690.— 
Phips appointed to command the forces. Court makes Sir William free and swears 
him major-general." 



58 THE BORDER WAR^F NEW ENGLAND [1690 

mitted, aud his reputation as a commander was made 
at once.^ 

No doubt was now felt that, with a little greater effort, 
Quebec and Montreal could be taken with all ease. 
Phips himself seems to have been of this opinion. Nor 
was it ill-founded. As a matter of fact, Quebec had 
Plan to take been taken before, and it was not unreason- 
Quebec, able to suppose that it might be taken 
again. The concurrence of Connecticut and New York 
being obtained, land forces were raised to attack Mon- 
treal by way of Lake Champlain,^ while Phips, with a 
fleet, should be thundering away at Quebec. 

It was a good plan and well deserved success — the 
self-same plan, in fact, by Avhich the conquest of Can- 
ada was achieved seventy years later. By assailing two 
points at once the chances of success were greatly im- 
proved.^ But the army got no farther than the head of 
Lake Champlain, leaving Phips to fight it out alone at 
Quebec, where he was repulsed, as a matter of course ; 

1 Meneval, commander of Port Royal, charged Phips with violating the capitula- 
tion, and even with robbing him of his own money. A violent scene took place at 
a hearing before the Massachusetts Council, in the course of which Sewall, who was 
present, says that "very fierce words" passed between Sir William and Mr. (John) 
Nelson, who took Meneval's part. 

2 Frrz John Winthrop, who had served under Cromwell in England, was put in 
command. 

3 At a congress of delegates held at New York, early in May, it was agreed that 
New York should raise four hundred men and the New England colonies three hun- 
dred and fifty-five, to which the Iroquois were expected to add the whole fighting 
strength of their confederacy. Only a few Mohawks and Oneidas joined the expedition, 
however, the more western tribes failing to appear. Of the white forces New York and 
Connecticut alone furnished their contingents, Massachusetts and Plymouth having 
their hands full in defending their frontiers. See Jourtial of Jfajor General Winthrop, 
N. Y. Col. Docs., IV., 193; Sewall Papers, I., 327, etc. News that the Montreal 
troops were returning from Wood Creek, to which point they had marched, came to 
Boston, August 28, during a Public Fast, eliminating, of course, all hope of ultimate 
success. Ibid. Captain John Schuyler, with a detachment of New York volunteers and 
Indians, made a bold dash to La Prairie, opposite Montreal, inflicting some loss upon 
the enemy. 



1690] 



PHIPS FAILS AT QUEBEC 



59 



for as soon as Froutenac found that Montreal was in no 
danger he hurried off to Quebec with every available man 
and musket. Instead of a garrison weakly manned, Phips 
really had to contend with the whole strength of the col- 
ony, led by a soldier every way his superior in military 
knowledge and capacity. Quebec, too, had been made 




SKETCH MAP, APPROACHES TO QDEBEC. 



very strong. But this fact did not become known until 
it was too late to draw back. 

Owing to various delays the fleet did not get in sight 
of Quebec until the 5th of October, when, if anything 
was to be done, it was necessary to act promptly, as the 
season for active campaigning was draw- Phips's fleet 
ing to a close. The fleet consisted of and army, 

thirty-two sail, scraped together for this expedition, the 
largest carrying forty-four guns, some a few only, and 



60 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [IGIK) 

the greater part uoue at all, being mere transports.^ 
Twenty- three hundred men were embarked.'^ 

On the 6th, however, Phips summoned Frontenac to 
surrender in terms which the old soldier hotly resented; 
and, in view of the means at his disposal for enforcing 
the demand, it must be admitted that Phips's language 
w^as sufficiently offensive. But Frontenac was not to be 
browbeaten into surrendering. He flew into a towering 
passion, called the English rebels and traitors to their 
lawful sovereign, and threatened the envoy, but finally 
calmed down sufficiently to return Phips the dignified 
and soldierly answer, " Tell him who sent you to do his 
best, and I will do mine." To Phips the challenge could 
scarcely have been eiicouraging. From his anchorage 
in the basin below, the huge, rock-ribbed promontory of 
Quebec as it Quebec towered defiant in the distance. 
looked to Phips. j^^ f^^oj^i-^ thrust boldy out into the St. Law- 
rence, was a precipice. Whichever way the eye wan- 
dered no vantage ground offered itself in this direction. 
Tow^ard the country, however, the land feU off to a lower 
level, showing the besiegers a line of lesser heiglits, 
down which the road from the town led to a stretch of 
meadow land bordering the river St. Charles, crossed 
this at the usual fording place, practicable only at low 
tide, and passed on to Beauport, where the shipping lay. 

A morass, a ford, a steep ascent thus separated the 

combatants in this quarter. Yet this, as Frontenac well 

knew, was the one assailable side of Quebec, 

and he had accordingly made up his mind 

not to risk a general engagement beyond the St. Charles, 

as Montcalm afterward did, but to let the English 

1 FouK ships of war and twenty-eight others. — Sewall. 

2 Wait Winthrop to his son John. 



1690] 



PHIPS PAILS AT QUEBEC 



61 



themselves cross the river, and attack him in his de- 
fences, thus taking the fullest advantage of all the nat- 
ural obstacles in the way of their advance or retreat. 




QUEBEC, FROM AN OLD PBINT. 

Such, in brief, was the position which Phips had come 
so far to take, and Frontenac had labored night and day 
to strengthen. Without making a careful reconnois- 
sance in advance, misled by the out-of-date report that 



63 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1690 

it was not half fortified, and but weakly defended, Pliips 
nevertheless, born fighter that he was, saw only his en- 
emy within his reach at last. 

The land forces, upon whom the brunt of the assault 
must fall, had now been cooped up for a month on ship- 
board, without any opportunity whatever of getting 
together for drill or discipline. All w^ere raw militia. 
They were commanded by Major John Walley, a respect- 
able civilian, who was yet to fight his first battle. The 
small-pox had broken out at sea ; and, from one cause 
or another, so many had fallen sick that of the 2,300 who 
had embarked at Boston, probably a third part were 
wholly unfit for active duty. The rest, however, showed 
no lack of spirit when called upon to fight. 

The plan agreed upon embraced an assault upon the 
town, in the rear, while the fleet was cannonading it in 
front. But the troops were first to gain the desired po- 
sition by crossing the St. Charles and storming the 
heights of St. Genevieve beyond ; then, w^hen the greater 
part of the garrison should be drawn off to repulse this 
assault, Phips was to open his batteries 
upon the town. If the enemy showed 
weakness here, Phips himself was to attempt a landing 
at the Lower Town. Little fault can be found with this 
plan, but much with the way in which it w^as carried out. 
Two days went by. The 6th passed, as we have seen, 
in fruitless negotiation. The 7th proved too stormy to 
attempt a landing. On the 8th, however, about 1,300 
men were set on shore, abreast of the fleet, 
some four miles below the town, most of 
them wading through w^ater knee deep from where the 
boats grounded on the flats. " Never were more men 
landed in less time," declares Walley. 



1690] PHIPS FAILS AT QUEBEC 63 

Tlie troops had scarcely begun their march toward 
the town when they were fired upon from every copse 
and thicket by the enemy's out- parties, who hung, like 
swarms of angry bees, around the invaders, disputing 
their advance from cover to cover, until routed by a 
final charge, when they broke away and i^each the 

re-crossed the river to the town, and at st. charies. 
dark the New Englanders encamped for the night on the 
banks of the St. Charles. This opening affair had cost 
them four killed and sixty wounded. Considering that 
the ground had not been reconnoitred at all, it was by 
no means discreditable to Walley's raw levies. 

That evening a deserter came into camp, bringing the 
unwelcome news of the garrison's being heavily rein- 
forced from Montreal. This piece of news seems to 
have taken all the fight out of Walley, who now found 
twenty reasons for not advancing a step farther. And 
he was still further disconcerted at seeing Phips weigh 
anchor to attack the town, before the troops were in 
position to co-operate with him. 

Whether this manoeuvre was intended to draw atten- 
tion from Walley, and thus facilitate his crossing the St. 
Charles, is uncertain. Walley says that the boats prom- 
ised him for this purpose failed to appear ; and further- 
more, that a battery of eight guns, with a thousand men 
in support of it, was waiting for him on the opposite 
shore. 

Be that as it may, toward evening, the four heaviest 
ships moved up before the town, and were soon hotly 
engaged with the enemy's batteries. Night phips cannon- 
put an end to the conflict. It was resumed ^*'®®- 
in the morning, with the result, that, after being bad- 
ly cut up in their hulls and rigging, without doing seri- 



64 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1690 

ous damage to the enemy, the ships were obliged to drop 
down, out of the fire, leaving the troops without support. 
During the cannonade, they had remained mere idle look- 
ers-on, and, now, that it had failed, Walley shrank from 
making the assault alone. After holding his ground until 
the 10th, he appealed to Sir William to withdraw the 
Phips is beaten troops, and as Phips now realized that he 
***** was beaten, orders were given to bring them 

off without loss of time. This was efiected on the night 
of the 11th. 

Phips now thought only of getting away from Que- 
bec as soon as possible. Before sailing, there was an 
exchange of prisoners,^ by which Captain Davis and two 
daughters of Lieutenant Clark, taken at Casco, and little 
Sarah Gerrish, carried off from Dover, were released 
from captivity. 

On the return voyage, the same ill fortune continued 
to pursue Phips and his defeated squadron. One vessel 
suffered shipwreck on the Island of Anticosti,^ two or 
more were sunk, and several blown off to the West In- 
dies.'^ One b}' one they came dropping into the port 
they had left with such full expectation of an easy vic- 
tory. Now all Avas changed. No such terrible humilia- 
tion had ever before visited New England. Yet, alone 
and single-handed, she had struck the blow which was 
to be the key-note of future operations against Canada ; 

• Os his way up the river Phips had taken several prisoners, among whom was the 
wife of the explorer, Joliet. 

2 " June 29, 1691 : Yesterday Rainsford arrived with 17 men that remained alive on 
Anticosti ; 4 dead of the small-pox since the long boat's coming.'"'— Sewall Paperx. 

3 " Fkidat, Nov, 8, 1690 : Between 9 and 10 at night, governor sends to me and 
enforms of the defeat at Canada. Shute comes into Boston that night or next 
morning ; bath thrown overboard more than sixty persons since his going hence, 
most Indians of Plymouth. Town much filled with the discourse and some cast 
blame on Major WsWcyy—Sewail Papers, L, S32. 



1690] PHIPS FAILS AT QUEBEC 65 

and if, in this instance, it had not proved successful, if 
the means and the leadership had savored somewhat of 
inexperience, and yet more of over-confidence, the les- 
son, costly as it proved, was not thrown away. Present 
failure only pointed the way to ultimate success. 

The impoverished people w^ere, however, at the end 
of their resources.^ For the present they could see 
nothing but their overwhelming defeat. The returning 
soldier's were loudly clamoring for their pay, and there 
was no money to pay them with. In this extremity, 
Massachusetts was forced to resort to the expedient of 
issuing paper money to defray the expenses of the ex- 
pedition, which, it had been confidently First paper 
hoped, would be met by the spoil of "°"^y- 
Quebec. And here was first opened the door to those 
financial difficulties which ever after proved so vexatious 
and so lasting in their effects.'^ 

1 Penhallow puts the cost of this expedition at £140,000 in money, besides the 
lives of several hundred men. 

2 The leading authorities on this expedition are Walley's Journal, in Hutchinson, 
vol. \, Appendix; Diary of Sylv anus Davis in Mas.^. Eist. Coll., 3. 1, 101 ; Savage, Ac- 
coimt of the Late Action, etc. (London, 1691) ; Winthrop, Journal in N. Y. Col. Docs., 
IV., 193; Public Occurrences (Boston, September 25, 1690). The French accounts 
of Charlevoix, La Hontan and La Potherie, furnish details not given elsewhere. Char- 
elvoix should be read for its detail of th« land operations; La Hontan for the incident 
of the summons. 

5 



VIII 

CHURCH'S SECOND EXPEDITION 

September, 1690-1691 

While Phips was on his way to Quebec, the Massa- 
chusetts authorities deemed the opportunity a fitting 
one to chastise the hostile tribes who had desolated 
the Maine border in the previous spring, now that the 
French could afford them no aid. For this purpose 
Major Church was again called into the service. It 
required considerable j)ersuasion to induce the old 
ranger again to take the field, for he was still smarting 
under the censures his previous expedition had called 
forth ; but he was at length prevailed upon to lay aside 
his personal grievances and accept the command. Many 
of his old soldiers, Indians included, immediately en- 
listed under him. In all, three hundred men were 
raised, with whom Church was expected to give a good 
account of himself. 

It has already been explained why the rivers empty- 
ing upon the Maine coast were so many points of 
danger from hostile inroads. At safe distances up 
these rivers, varying from sixty to a hundred miles, the 
tribes who usually acted together against the English 
had permanent villages, whence war-parties could easily 
slip down unperceived to the coast, join their forces at 
some point mutually agreed upon, and fall upon such 
settlements as had been marked for destruction. Small 



1690-1691] CHURCH'S SECOND EXPEDITION 67 

and insufficient garrisons posted at the mouths of these 
rivers had utterly failed to put a stop to these inroads. 
Scouting the border could not do it. To destroy the 
enemy's villages was the only alternative. Eoot out 
the nests and the vultures would fly away. 

Church arrived in Casco Bay on September 11th. He 
was ordered to first strike the Indian villages on the 
Androscoggin, which the high water had prevented his 
reaching in the preceding year. Landing, as before, at 
Maquoit, he first marched up to Pejepscot Fort.^ Find- 
ing this abandoned, he kept on some forty church 
miles higher up the river, to the enemy's at Pejepscot. 
principal village and fort. When within gunshot of it, 
his advance was discovered. What few men were there 
fled away in a panic, leaving the women and children to 
their fate. Church says that some three or four were 
shot while attempting to swim the river. Among the 
dirt and filth of the wigwams five English captives 
were found in a most pitiable plight.^ Six or seven of 
the Indian prisoners were inhumanly butchered, Church 
says, as an example to the rest.^ Two old women, too 
decrepit to bear the fatigues of a march, were spared to 
relate the story of the descent and slaughter to their 
friends. In his usual boastful vein Church told them 
who he was, what great things he had done in Philip's 
War, and what their tribe might expect if they contin- 
ued to make war upon the English. Then, softening 
his tone somewhat, he bade the hags tell their warriors 
that, if they wanted to see their wives again, they must 

1 BuHiT and abandoned by the Engrlish. 

2 Mrs. Robert Huckins, taken at Durham the preceding August ; Mrs. Benjamin 
Barnard, of Salmon Falls ; Ann Heard, of Dover ; one Willis's daughter, of Durham, 
and also a boy of Durham. — Church's Letter, September oO, 1690. 

3 Church's Entertaining History. 



68 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1G90-1691 

bring iu all tlieir English captives to Berwick within 
fourteen days. 

Nine women and children of the chiefs Kankamagus 
and Worombo were brought off as pledges for the good 
behavior of the tribe in future ; for Church well knew 
that so long as they were in his power these chiefs 
would remain quiet. 

From questions put to the only man taken there, 
whose life was spared at the earnest entreaty of Mrs. 
Huckins, Church learned that most of the warriors 
had gone over to the Saco Eiver to collect provisions 
there for an expedition they had planned in concert 
with the Bay of Fundy Indians. Acting upon this 
information, he resolved to follow them without delay. 
After burning the fort, with its stores of corn, laid up 
for the winter, Church therefore marched back to his 
vessels, with his prisoners and booty. 

He was here joined by young Anthony Brackett, who 
had been taken at Casco, but had made his escape upon 
hearing of Church's being up the river. Brackett's 
thorough knowledge of the localities proved of much 
use in Church's future operations. 

Church now sailed round into Saco Eiver, where 
some of the enemy were discovered making fish. His 
scouts killed two of them, and rescued Thomas Baker, 
an English captive, who told Church where these Ind- 
ians had hid away their beaver at Pejepscot. Eetracing 
Sails back his course, that place was re-visited, and 

to Saco. tbe plunder secured, but no Indians were 

seen. Some of Church's men now demanded that he 
should return home. Church demurred, but was over- 
ruled by his council, and after recrossing Casco Bay, 
the vessels cast anchor at Purpooduc Point, on Cape 



I 



1690-1691] CHURCH'S SECOND EXPEDITION 69 

Elizabeth, for the night. Three companies were allowed 
t encamp on shore. The Indians -horn " ^^^ 
been chasing about, but had never overtaken, had now 
got together in considerable force, and, un- s^^--^at 
known to him, were watching his every " 
niovlment. Finding a careless watch kep , hey feU 
teLusly upon the camp, at daybreak, and had nearly 
driven the English into the sea, before a sufficient 
number could be rallied to make head against then^. 
Ohth hastened to their assistance. The as^^l^Js 
^vere then charged and routed m their tm-n. In this 
;;^etched affair the English had seven killed and twen- 

'luSrofftom here to the westward. Church next 
mata landing at Cape Neddock, marched thence to 
Wells and sent out scouts as far back to the eastward as 
Saco Ms> and Winter Harbor.^ No enemy was found 
Since striking their blow at Purpoocluc, ^^^^^ 
scattered to the woods agam. Having called in his 
scouts Church returned to Portsmouth on September 
26th to brood over the cool reception that he knew 

awaited him at home. M1„wpd 

As Church had foreseen, one good ^--1^°^^-^ 
close upon his capture of the Indian women at Andros- 
coggin fort. In October several of the chie sachem 
came to Wells, where they held a talk with Captain 
eTsL Andros, under a flag of truce. With real or pre- 
fended sincerity-it is hard to say which-they declared 
that the French had made fools of them Atruce 

tl.flt thev would fight against the English 
TJoZZ^ thaf tl4 were ready to make a reaty 
whenever the English were. A meeting was soon ar 

a Biddeford Pool. 
1 Biddeford. 



70 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [16i)l 

ranged for, wliicli took place at Sagadahoc, November 
23d. Bj that time it is evident that the hostile Abena- 
kis had heard of the repulse of Phips at Quebec, and, 
under French influences, were wavering or scheming to 
gain time, for they brought in only ten captives of the 
large number in their hands, and after prolonging the 
talk for six days, finally agreed only to a truce until 
the following May, at which time they promised to de- 
liver the rest of their captives and conclude a lasting 
peace. We shall see how this promise was kept.^ 

No Indians appeared at the appointed time, though 
the English commissioners were on the spot, ready to 
proceed with the treaty. This keeping aloof from the 
rendezvous was of sinister omen, and forewarned another 
outbreak. Breathing time, however, had been gained, 
which was much to a people worn down and disj)irited 
by the last year's reverses. 

It proved, however, a mere lull in the storm. When 
questioned, the neighboring Indians pretended ignorance 
of the time fixed for the treaty. A further delay was 
granted. This also proved a blind. Convinced, at last, 
that the subtle enemy would soon be upon them again, 
the commissioners hastened homeward, promising to 
send reinforcements to Wells forthwith. 

It was in June, 1691, that Captain James Converse 
was posted in Storer's garrison,^ at Wells, with some 
thirty-five or forty soldiers, part of whom had but just 
joined him, when the chief, Moxus, assaulted it at the 

1 Upon this conference see Mather's Magnalia, 529-553 ; Collections Massachusetts 
Historical Society''s 3d Series, I., 104, 105 ; Hutchinson, I., 358. Church was annoyed at 
being ignored in this affair. 

2 The site is now identified only by the angle of an old wall, built of large, 
unhewn stones, brought here by water, for the purpose. It was on the main road 
through Wells, where the house of John S. Pope stands, as I write. 



1691] 



CHURCH'S SECOND EXPEDITION 



71 



head of two liundred warriors, expecting an easy con- 
quest. The assault was bravely repulsed, and Moxus 
drew off, swearing to be revenejed. When 

Wells assaulted. 

Madockawando heard of it he laughed 
heartily. " So," said the amused chief, " my brother 
Moxus has missed it, has he ? next year I'll go myself, 
and have the dog Converse out of his den." 



r 



---I 




SITE OP STORER GARRISON, WELIiS, ME. 



Foiled in their attempt on Wells, the enraged assail- 
ants next fell upon the little fishing hamlet at Cape 
Neddock, five miles farther down the coast. Murders 

and in York. Here they killed nine men, »^ ^<»»'''- 

who were loading a vessel, set the hamlet on fire, and then 
disappeared as suddenly as they came. The limit of 



72 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1691 

this raid was, however, to mark the startiug-j^oint of 
cue bloodier still, before many months had passed 
away. 

Following close upon these events, four companies of 
English, commanded by Captain John March, were de- 
spatched in July to the enemy's old haunts atPejepscot. 
They marched up from Maquoit, and they marched back 
again, empty handed. No Indians had been met with ; 
yet while the soldiers were re-embarking, they were 
violently attacked by the wily enemy, who expected to 
repeat the lesson they had given Captain Chui'ch, the 
September before, at Purpooduc. Captain Sherburne ^ 
was killed before he could get off to his vessel. This 
onslaught was excellently timed, when the vessels were 
left aground by the tide. As soon as they were afloat 
again, they hauled off, for reasons unexplained in the 
accounts of the affair. 

Except for roving scalping-parties, who killed seven 
persons at Berwick, two more at Exeter, and killed or 
captured twenty-one more at Eye, the remainder of 
At Berwick the year was passed in comparative quiet, 
and Rye. ^g ^gnal, the English had suffered more 

loss than they inflicted. But March's expedition was 
said to have checked a purposed descent upon the Isles 
of Shoals. In November Port Koyal was retaken by 
Governor Villebon without striking a blow, there being 
no garrison to defend it. In gloom and darkness the 
old year went out and the new came in. 

1 Sherbukne was of Portsmouth, N. H. 



IX 



YORK LAID WASTE, WELLS ATTACKED 

February— June, 1692 

On the morning of the 5th of February 1692^ the 
vmage of York lay locked in the arms of winter. Smce 
da^teak it had been snowing heavily, so that few of the 
inhabitants were yet stirring. At this hour nothmg 
could be heard but the muffled roar of the waves, beat- 
ing agamst the ice-bound coast, or the moajimg of the 
wind? as it swept through the naked forest. All else 
wore its usual quiet. aj. 4.i.«4- 

Suddenly a gunshot broke the stillness At that 
sound the village awoke. The startled -ttkrs ran to 
their doors and windows. Out in the darkness and 
gloom they saw a body of armed men fronting t^iem on 
levy side Some tried to escape by their front-doors. 
1 storm of bullets drove them back. They next made 
for the back-doors. Death met them at the threshold. 
They saw themselves surrounded, entrapped. On every 
side the rattle of musketry, mingled with the loud yells 
of the assailants, drowned the voices of nature-moan- 
ing sea and rising storm. The village was surromided 
and retreat cut off ; and a carnival of murder was to jom 
its horrid uproar to that of the elements. 

From the brow of Mount Agamenticus, the enemy had 
reconnoitred the village on the afternoon before. They 

1 Matheb's date of January 25 is Old Style. 



74 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1G92 

had bivouacked there that night in the snow. There 
was no warning of their coming. Under cover of the 
storm some three hundred savages had stolen upon the 
village, like famishing wolves upon a sheepfold. They 
found no watch set to give the alarm, as they silently 
filed out of the forest into the open fields beyond. Not 
even a dog barked. The fresh snow deadened their 
stealthy footfall. Until that signal shot was fired, no- 
body dreamed of an enemy near. 

Then the slaughter began. The savages quickly 
burst open the doors with their axes, killing and scalp- 
ing all whom they met. As soon as one house was 
carried, and its inmates butchered, it was first ransacked 
and then set on fire ; the assailants then rushing off in 
pursuit of new victims. In a short time the village was 
blazing in twenty places. 

At length it would seem as if the savages themselves 
grew weary of bloodshed, since some four-score persons 
escaped the tomahawk and scalj^iug-knife. Among 
them were many aged women and little children, some 
of whom were set at liberty when the Indians marched 
off. Accounts differ as to the number slain, Mather 
Number of fixing it at fifty, others at from seventy- 

•''"«*'• five to a hundred. Many of the slain were 

cremated in their own dwellings. The blow was sud- 
den, unlooked-for, deadly. It was not supposed that 
the place could ever rise from its ashes again. 

Among the scattered houses, stretched a mile and a 
half along the river, four or five had been expressly con- 
structed as a defence for the rest. These were, there- 
fore, termed garrisons. Their thick walls of hewn 
timber were bullet-proof ; a row of stout pickets kept an 
assailant at a distance ; while the inmates were firing i 



1692] 



YORK LAID WASTE, WELLS ATTACKED 



75 



deliberately from a secure cover, through the loop- 
holes. E-ude as they were, these primitive fortresses 
proved of signal use in repelling such attacks as that 
just narrated. 

A few resolute, or desperate, men succeeded in break- 
ing through their assailants, and so gaining the shelter 
of some of the four garrisons. All were summoned to 




JUNKINS GARRISON, YORK. 



surrender, but in every case the summons met with a 
stern defiance. Finding that nothing was to be had but 
blows, the savages drew off without venturing to make 
an assault. Except Alcock's, Harmon's, Norton's, and 
Preble's garrisons, every house in the village was bm-ned 
to the ground. 

The house of Shubael Dummer, the minister, stood 
by the seaside, not far from Roaring Eock. He was 
shot down at his own door, while in the act of mounting 



76 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1692 

his horse. His wife and sou ^^ ere carried off into cai3- 
tivity, with the rest, and Mather pithily says that one of 
Dummer the " bloody tygres " strutted about among 

*'*•"• the broken-hearted prisoners, wearing the 

clothes of the murdered man. 

These Indians belonged to the missions of Father 
Thury at Penobscot, and Father Bigot at Norridgewock, 
by whom the expedition had been set on foot. Before 
dividing their plunder, these so-called Christian con- 
verts chanted a Te Deum for their victory. They also 
chanted matin and vesper service, while on their home- 
ward march, as their spiritual fathers had strictly 
charged them not to omit the sacred offices of religion, 
if they Avould have success reward their undertaking. ^ 

A boy, four years old, who escaped the massacre, 
afterwards grew up to lead an avenging band against 
this same Kennebec tribe and mission, and extermi- 
nated both. 

As Wells joins York at the east, it was in a manner 
isolated by the crushing blow dealt that place. The 
people of Wells, lonely outpost of a lonely frontier, now 
talked of nothing but abandoning the place. To in- 
weiisanOut- duce them to stay the garrisons were 
P°s*- strengthened, stores collected, and the 

country diligently patrolled for signs of the enemy. 
Nothing happened, however, until June, when Madock- 
awando made good his threat, in part, by coming at 
the head of four hundred warriors, as he had said he 
would. Moxus and Egeremet were with him, the for- 
mer burning to wipe away the disgrace of his defeat ; the 
latter as eager for English scalps as he had been ever 

1 Upon receipt of the news at Boston, Major Hutchinson was sent to the scene of 
the massacre. 



1693] YORK LAID WASTE, WELLS ATTACKED 77 

since the kidnapping of his friends at Black Point, five 
years before. 

Joined to this formidable body of savages was a 
small band of Canadians, commanded by Portneuf, an 
ofiicer assigned to the expedition by his superiors, 
active in setting it on foot, skilled in border warfare, 
and now exercising as much authority as a horde of 
undisciplined savages were disposed to portneui in 
yield to a white man. With Portneuf command, 

were the Baron St. Castin, a gentleman by birth, and a 
savage from choice ; also one La Brognerie, and one or 
two other French officers. 

To oppose this army Converse could muster only 
fifteen soldiers of the garrison, to whom, if we should 
add such of the inhabitants as had sought safety with- 
in its walls, the defenders could still count themselves 
but a handful at best. Fortunately, how- storer's garri- 
ever, two sloops, laden with stores for the ^°" •'®*®*- 

garrison, had arrived on the 9th, with fourteen soldiers 
more, thus bringing Converse's force up to twenty-nine 
fighting men. To these should be added, of course, 
those able-bodied inhabitants who had come into the 
garrison, upon hearing of the enemy's approach. 

This was not, however, to be a battle of numbers, but 
one of courage, endurance, and skill. Wells was but a 
small, straggling village, drawn out for a mile along the 
seashore it overlooked. Storer's garrison stood on the 
brow of a gentle rise of ground, commanding the little 
salt water river, or creek, that makes the harbor. At 
low tide there is only a thread of water left between 
banks of soft, sticky ooze. The two sloops were an- 
chored off in the channel, within pistol-shot of the 
shore, ready to bear their part in the coming fray ; and 



78 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1692 

as Converse had fully made up his mind never to yield 
while a man was left to fire a shot, or load a gun, the 
combat promised to be an obstinate one. 

These preparations for defence were scarcely com- 
pleted when notice was given of the enemy's presence 
by the cattle running in out of the woods, frightened 
and bleeding. The hunters of men were close at 
hand. That night was an anxious one for the garrison. 
As soon as it was light, contrary to their usual custom, 
the savages came swarming out of their hiding-places, 
screeching, brandishing their weapons aloft, and hurling 
shouts of defiance at the garrison as if they expected to 
frighten it into a suiTender by a show of numbers and 
noise. After yelling themselves hoarse, 
they let fly a random volley which hurt no- 
body, sheltered as the besieged were behind the stock- 
ade, while their steady return fire speedily drove the 
too confident assailants to their coverts again. 

Failing here, the savages next turned their attention 
to the sloops, which promised to fall an easy prey, as 
they lay within short gun-shot of the shore. Lying 
near at hand on the bank was a pile of planks, and also 
a haystack. From behind these a galling fire was kept 
up on the vessels with musketry, and they were once 
and again set on fire with lighted arrows. The fire was 
as often put out, however, by the steadiness and cool- 
ness of the crews, who also managed, by a well-aimed 
shot now and then, to hold their assailants under cover. 
One, indeed, who rashly ventured an attempt to get on 
board, by shielding his body behind a slab of pine, was 
shot dead in his tracks. 

This failure, however, seems to have suggested what 
followed. The besiegers having found a cart some- 



1692] YORK LAID WASTE, WELLS ATTACKED 79 

where, proceeded to fit it with a shield of planks in 
front, made bullet-proof. As many savages as it would 
hold then got into it, and when the tide had left the 
vessels aground, a score or more of their comrades be- 
gan pushing their ingenious machine out toward the 
helpless craft, under the direction of the converse hoMs 
Frenchman La Brognerie. It was thus ^"*- 

moved some distance when it stuck fast in the soft mud 
of the creek. La Brognerie put his shoulder to the 
wheel, to lift it, when a shot fired by Captain Storer 
from the garrison laid him dead on the spot. Another, 
who took La Brognerie's place at the wheel, fell a 
moment later, pierced by a bullet fired from the sloop. 
The machine remained immovable. As the tide rose 
it overset, so exposing those within it to a galling 
fire from the sloops, by which several more lost their 
lives while running to cover. When night put an end 
to the fighting, Storer's men had everywhere more than 
held their own. 

Throughout the night, the savages kept up a drop- 
ping fire, designed to keep the besieged on the alert, and 
so wear them out. They lay so near, that the firing 
was interspersed with harmless banterings on both sides. 
" Who are your commanders ? " a voice in the darkness 
called out. The reply quickly came back, " We have a 
great many commanders." "You lie," retorted the first 
speaker, " You have none but Converse, and we'll have 
him, too, before morning." 

In the morning the besiegers gathered together for a 
final and decisive assault, and at a given signal they 
made another blind rush for the stockade, firing their 
guns and yelling like so man}^ demons let loose. Con- 
verse exhorted his men to stand firm. One man only, 



80 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1692 

intimidated bj the fearful outcries around him, stam- 
mered out some words about surrendering, upon which 
Converse threatened him with instant death if he dared 
breathe that word again. A rapid discharge of musketry 
was kept up from the loopholes, the empty guns being 
passed back to the stout-hearted women of the garrison, 
who loaded and handed them over to their male defenders 
again ; some even firing away at the savages as un- 
dauntedly as the men. The assailants could not long 
stand before so hot a fire, on open ground, and gradu- 
ally broke SLwaj to cover again. 

Exasperated by repeated failures, the savages next 
made their most dangerous attempt upon the sloops, 
now lying lashed together for mutual protection out in the 
stream. A fire-raft was huniedly put together, the com- 
bustibles lighted, the raft shoved off from the shore and 
left to drift down upon the vessels with the tide.*- The 
same fatality attended this efibrt as the others. A puff 
of wind drove the blazing mass against the bank, where 
it burned harmlessly out. 

Force having failed, the discouraged besiegers resorted 
to stratagem. A flag was sent to demand a surrender. 
Ensign Hill went out to meet it. When the message 
was brought to Converse, he returned for an answer, 
"that he wanted nothing but men to come and fight 
him." The wrathful envoys retorted the threat to cut 
the English " as small as tobacco " before morning. Con- 
verse then broke off the conference with a brusque invi- 
tation to make haste, for he wanted work. The savage, 
who held the flag, then dashed it to the ground in a 
rage, and ran off one way, while Ensign Hill ran another, 
each one eager to get under cover as quickly as possible. 
It was well for Hill that he took the alarm when he did, 



1692] YORK LAID WASTE, WELLS ATTACKED 81 

for a number of shots were fired at him from an am- 
bush, treacherously contrived by the savages, in case 
their demand was refused. Thanks to fleetness of foot. 
Hill got into the garrison unhurt. 

This incident ended the siege. After putting their 
one captive, John Diamond, to death with excruciating 
tortures, the discomfited crew of white and red savages 
slunk silently away between dark and daylight, leaving 
some of their unburied dead behind them.^ 

1 Contemporary authorities for the attacks on York and Wells, are Mather's Mag- 
nalia; Charlevoix's, New France; Champigny, Letter to the Minister, October 5, 1692 ; 
Villebon's t/b?/rnai; Yi]s.e's Journal. See also BMtchinson, History of Massachusettif, 
II. ; Williamson, History of Maine, I. ; and Bourne, Wells and Kennebunk., for local 
tradition. 



REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID TO TREATY OF 1693 

May, 1692— August, 1693 

Thus far the war had been conducted under all the 
difficulties arising from an unsettled form of govern- 
ment. Self-preservation had, indeed, united all the 
people in a common effort against the common enemy. 
There was, however, an active undercurrent of social 
unrest, touching their political future, which now and 
again bubbled up to the surface, keeping the minds of 
all men in a state of dread and suspense highly injuri- 
ous to interests of every sort. Since the accession of 
William to the throne of England the people had lived 
in hopes of having their old charters restored. All un- 
certainty was now set at rest by the arrival of Sir Will- 
iam Phips, with a new charter, in May, 1692. ^ The 
king, in his wisdom, had appointed Phips to be gov- 
ernor, not unwilling, it would seem, to set a limit to the 
sir w. Phip demands of the old Puritan party, with 

governor. whom it is clcar that he had much less 

sympathy than was generally supposed. AVilliam was 
a deep politician. In Phips, for whose rugged honesty 
and personal bravery the king probably had a sincere 
liking, he saw an entering wedge likely to divide the 

» May 14, 1692, " Sir William arrives on the Nonsuch fiignte. Candles liRhted before 
he gets into the town-house." Seimll Paiiers, I.. 35G. News of his being made governor 
reached Boston late in January, 



1693-1693] THE REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID 83 

strong republican sentiment of New England, and by 
that sign to conquer. For certainly William had no 
more sympathy with republicanism than his predeces- 
sors. It was his trade to be king. 

The new charter went into effect at once. By its pro- 
visions all the old traditions were swept away with a 
stroke of the pen. It was in entire accord with the spirit 
which had brought about this sweeping political change 
that the new governor should himself be the obedient 
creature of the royal favor. 

Sir William found everything in the utmost confusion. 
As if the calamities of war were not enough, a new and 
secret enemy, intangible as the air itself, yet scattering 
its deadly poison broadcast, so that all who breathed 
the infection quickly yielded to its noxious effects, was 
terrorizing the community beyond all belief. It was not 
the ignorant alone, but also the wise, the learned, and 
deeply pious avIio fell before this astonish- The witchcraft 
ing delusion. In February of this year craze, 

the fatal witchcraft delirium had broken out and was 
now at its height. The most abject, unreasoning fears 
were pressing heavily upon the hearts of the people. 
Phips feared nothing in human shape, but was ill- 
equipped for an encounter with demons. It is no won- 
der, then, that he should prefer the horrors of war to the 
terrors of the invisible w^orld. Leaving, therefore, the 
judges and ministers of the Gospel to deal with the de- 
lusion. Sir William forthwith set himself to straighten- 
ing out the military situation with his customary energy. 
Moreover, the state of affairs on the eastern frontiers 
was such as to demand immediate attention. 

Realizing its importance, the king had directed the 
rebuilding of the fort at Pemaquid at once, first to re- 



84 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1692-1693 

cover lost ground, next to hold the Indians in check, 
and lastly to reassert the English claim to so much at 
least of the territory in dispute between the two crowTis.^ 
It was, as Hutchinson points out, a very ill-advised 
measure, Pemaquid being too remote to come within 
any well-digested plan of defence. He might have 
added that its very remoteness was one of the strongest 
reasons for attacking it, as it could not be reinforced 
except by sea. 

Turning a deaf ear, however, to the grumbling which 
the proposal met with, chiefly on account of the enor- 
mous expense, Phips at once vigorously set about the 
work cut out for him. He immediately summoned the 
ever-faithful Church to his aid, levied several hundred 
men with dispatch, made Church his second in com- 
mand, and set sail for Pemaquid early in August. On 
Pemaquid the Way there the expedition put into Fal- 

rebuiit. moutli, interred the remains of the dead, 

who had lain there unburied since the sacking of the 
place by Portneuf, took off the great guns, and then 
proceeded to its final destination. Phips's operations 
were greatly facilitated by the undivided authorit}^ which 
had passed to him by the new charter, Plymouth, 
Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia being now un- 
der one c:overnment. 



' The fort was supposed to cover the Kennebec, Damariscotta, and some other small 
rivers draining the coast between the Kennebec and Penobscot. It was argned that the 
settlers would thus be encouraged to return to their deserted farms, and the Indians ef- 
fectually kept out of those rivers for the future. But this would demand a garrison 
strong enough to act offensively, at need, outside the fort, instead of one so small as 
practically to be besieged inside of it : and it was clearly beyond the ability of Massa- 
chusetts to maintain such a garrison as the professed objects required. But the real 
design being jiolitical, the fortress had a certain strategic importance in the eyes of the 
court at a time when fortifications were the rage in Europe. For further particulars 
about Pemaquid consult Johnston's Bristol^ Bremen mid Pemaquid ; Nools and Cor- 
ners of the yew England Coast; The Pine-Tree Coast, etc. 



1692-1693] THE REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID 85 

Upon his arrival at Pemaquid, Pliips immediately set 
part of liis force to work building the fort, while, with 
the rest. Church started off to harass the enemy in that 
quarter. Doubtless a secondary purpose was to keep 
them from finding out what was going on at Pemaquid. 
In the execution of his orders Church first looked into 
the Penobscot, and afterward went up the Kennebec as 
far as Teconnet, where the Indians set fire to their fort 
and fled to the woods at his approach. 

Meanwhile work on the new fort was being pushed 
forward with the greatest vigor, and, on its completion, 
it was given the name of William Henry. ^ It was 
strongly built of stone, and armed with the heaviest 
guns then to be had — eighteen-pounders. Mather com- 
putes that above two thousand cart-loads Named 
of stone were used in laying up the walls, wiiiiam Henry. 
Leaving sixty men, under Captain March, to garrison 
it, Phips ordered the remainder back to Boston, well 
satisfied with having, at last, put an iron curb u23on the 
ambitious projects of his old enemy. Count Frontenac. 

It was while the attention of every one Avas drawn to 
the eastern frontier that a series of unlocked for attacks 
broke out in the west again. At Lancaster, on July 
18, 1692, a marauding party entered the house of Pe- 
ter Joslin, while he was aAvay at work, and butchered the 
whole family. When Joslin came home Lancaster 

he found his wife, his three children, and raided, 

a widow Whitcomb, who lived with him, lying in their 
blood, all having been tomahawked by the savages.^ A 
similar onslaught was made on Billerica, August 1st. It 

^ For a description in detail see Miither'^ ilngnalia, II., 53tt; or Decennium Ltic- 
tuosum, p. 81. 
2 Haewnqton's Century Sermon. 



86 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1692-1693 

is known that six persons here, belonging to two fami- 
lies, were killed at this time, the victims being Ann, the 
Biiierica wife of Zacliarj Shed, and their two chil- 

suffers. dren, Agnes and Hannah ; Joanna, the wife 

of Benjamin Dutton, and two of her children by a for- 
mer marriage, Mary and Benoni Dunkin. The records 
touching this event are quite meagre, but the list of vic- 
tims shows that probably not more than two houses 
were assaulted at this time. Brookfield also was visited, 
at nearly the same time, on the same murderous errand.^ 
Brookfield, The first victims were Joseph Wolcot's 

July 27. ^jfg Q^jj^ ^^y^ daughters, who hid them- 

selves in the bushes, but were discovered and slain, 
Wolcot himself escaping, with another child, to a dis- 
tant garrison. The house of one Mason was entered 
while the family were at dinner. Mason and one or two 
of his children slain, and Mrs. Mason and her infant 
carried off. Thomas and Daniel Lawrence, two brothers, 
also were taken prisoners, Thomas being soon after killed 
for having deceived his captors with respect to the num- 
ber of men in the town. Meantime a messenger had 
gone to Springfield for assistance. A company under 
Captain Colton set out in pursuit of the raiders. Mrs. 
Mason's infant was found knocked in the head and 
thrown into the bushes. Following the fresh tracks, the 
pursuers came upon the Indians' camp, which they had 
surrounded with a brush fence. The avengers of blood 
waited until daybreak and then fell upon the camp, kill- 
ing fourteen or fifteen of the savages,^ rescuing Daniel 
Lawrence and Mrs. Mason, putting the rest of the sav- 

J The details of this affair are narrated in Fiske's Historical Dhcourse. 
^ Sewall has it five or six killed and two captives rescued, as the account first came 
to hand. Papers I., 381, 



1692-1693J THE REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID 87 

ages to flight, and capturing some of the phmder left 
behind in their haste. 

During these troublesome times, John Nelson, a 
prominent merchant of Boston, had been taken prisoner 
while making a trading voyage to the St. John Eiver, 
and carried to Quebec.^ 

It chanced that, in the course of these Avars, Nelson 
had shown some kindness to certain French prisoners 
of rank, and noAV that the fortune of war had placed 
him in the same situation, his former conduct was re- 
membered to his advantage. Frontenac j. Nelson 
lodged him in the chateau, gave him a seat taken. 
at his own table, and though keeping a strict eye on his 
prisoner, behaved like a generous enemy toward him. 

Nelson spoke French fluently, had some knowledge of 
Indian dialects, was quick and observant, intelligent and 
penetrating. He had been in Quebec before ; knew all 
the ins and outs of the place ; had a heart to feel for 
the sufferings of others ; and as the city was then 
crowded with our poor prisoners, dragged thither by 
the savages, Nelson humanely set himself to relieving 
their wants as far as lay in his power. 

From such a man what was going on around him could 
not long remain hidden. In the first place, two ships 
of war arrived from France. Instead of unloading they 
began taking on board cannon and provisions. Then, 
a number of Indian chiefs were daily coming to Quebec, 
to receive presents and to have a talk with their French 
father, as Frontenac was styled by them. Among these 
was the Penobscot sachem, Madockawando, who was 
well known to Nelson. 

By making good use of his eyes and ears Nelson soon 

1 Nelson was taken in October, 1691, with Colonel Tyng and John Alden, Jr. 



88 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1692-1693 

learned be}oud a doubt that a formidable expedition 
was getting ready to capture Pemaquid, the new English 
fortress commanding the coasts of Acadia ; and after- 
ward to ravage all the New England coast beyond. 

In all probability his friends and kinsfolk were com- 
pletely ignorant of the blow about to fall upon them. 
In the course of some talk he held with Madockawando 
Nelson drew enough from the wily savage to be con- 
vinced that it was meant to be the heaviest stroke that 
New England had ever known. 

From this moment Nelson could think of nothing but 
how to warn his friends of their danger. His decision 
was quickly taken to attempt it at all risks. But how to 
do this seasonably, and mthout drawing suspicion uj^on 
himself, was a matter so beset with difficulties on every 
side that almost any other man would have despaired of 
success. 

Though not restrained of his personal liberty, Nelson 
was closely watched by an attendant. He was not per- 
mitted to write letters. Once, indeed, this vigilant at- 
tendant, in reality a spy upon him, had surprised Nelson 
Thwarts in the act of writing and had taken away 

Frontenac. j^ig inkliom. However, where there's a will 

there's a way ; so, under the plea of illness. Nelson man- 
aged to write a letter in bed, at such odd moments as 
could be snatched from this constant espionage. When 
he heard the attendant coming he would hide his unfin- 
ished letter under the bedclothes. 

His next care was to find a messenger or messengers. 
This Avas done by bribing two soldiers to desert, who 
succeeded in making their way first to Albany and then 
to Boston, thus disclosing Frontenac's favorite project in 
time to admit of strengthening the garrison at Pema- 



f 




JOHN NEXSON. 



90 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1692-1693 

quid; so that when the two ships-of-war did arrive 
before it the commander judged the place too strong to 
be attacked. 

As this descent had been carefully planned in France, 
Louis was very wroth when he heard how completely it 
had failed, and Frontenac received a reprimand that 
stung him to the quick. So when Frontenac was in- 
formed of Nelson's share in thwarting his well-laid plans, 
as he presently w^as by the recapture of the two deserters, 
his anger was aroused against the man Avho had dared 
thus to beard him in his own stronghold. And the pen- 
alty exacted savored both of fear and revenge. These 
feelings were no doubt aggravated by the King's reproof 
for having treated Nelson with so much consideration. 
He was now to experience treatment of a far different 
nature. 

Nelson was therefore shipped off to France as a state 
prisoner of the most dangerous character. He was first 
thrown into a dungeon of the Chateau Angouleme, where, 
for two years, he was allowed to see no one except the 
gaoler, who brought his food to the grating of his cell. 
He might have died there, unpitied and unknown, if a 
visitor, from motives of curiosity, had not one day 
In the stopped at his grating to ask if he could 

Bastiie. (]q anything for him. Nelson entreated 

that his friends in England might be informed of his 
situation. This was done, with the result that a demand 
soon came back for Nelson's release or exchange. Al- 
though the demand was ignored, it proved the means of 
getting Nelson transferred to the Bastiie, at Paris, in 
which formidable fortress he was confined for two and 
a half years more. 

After many grievous disappointments. Nelson at last 



1692-1693] 



THE REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID 



91 



got leave to go over to England, on his parole, upon giving 
a bond in a large sum for his return. This was generously 




THE BASTILE, IN THE TIME OP LOUIS XIV. 



furnished by a French gentleman. Nelson then crossed 
the channel to England. Upon hearing his story, the 
king laid his commands upon Nelson not to go back to 



FiuiK'o. NN'ith a t\\^liiii; N\liiv.vh doo^ him honor, NoUoii 
disolH'ved tho orvlor, ivoiVi>stHl tlio ohaiuiol and i;aYt* 
himself up. thus ivdeoming his }^U\li;os. Poaoo boiiii; 
deolarod. Nelson wai> sot at lilvrtv. Hrokeu in heaUh, 
he ivturued to his family after an absence of ten years, 
during >vhieh he had dared and sutVt^ivd as few men 
have for love of country.' 

The Yigoi*ousmeasmvs inaugurated by riovernor Thips 
bi"Ought a season of respite to the long-sulVeiing inhal)- 
itants of the eastern froutiei's. ll^^eept some minor 
depredations committed by small scalping }niities at 
Oyster l\iver,"'' and Quaboag/" tlie spring and suninun- of 
liU^o ueiv passed in comparative quiet. MeanNvhiK\ 
the indefatigable Major Converse. N\iih four or tlve 
hundred men, \vas ranging up and down the eastern 
country, from Kscataqua to Temaquid, and from the 
coast as far up the Kennebec as Teconnet,^ keeping 
the Indians continually on the move, and thus prevent- 
iuiT their assembliui;" in anv force for their customarv 
niids. 

AYith the active entiimce of the Fivnch into the w ar, 
by sea as well as by land, the old tind)er stcx*kades of 
former times had outlived their usefulness. Forts for 
sea-co4\st defence now Wgan tol>e built with the vit^w of 
resisting the heavy artillery of ships of war. Pemaquid 
aimomiced this new depart nro from the primitivt^ 

' It is uucertaiu just how fnr Nelson's iuforiuation was effective in this m»ttt-r. Uis 
Wtter. daterl at Quebec, August t^t^th and ^ih, mentions Wells, the IsK-s of Sh<.>»ds ami 
l^isoatai^ua, as the places to Iw ravagt\l. News of the rebuilding of IVumquid might 
uol have reached him so svxni, though it was xmdoubteilly known to FivutcKao. Nel- 
son's letter arrive<.l at Boston aU.>uc September 25th. in ample tni.e to stj-engthen Penia- 
quid before Iberville came before it, in ^.Vtober. Charlevoix is jK>sitive that Nelson's 
agency frustrateil the design. Hutchins«.m ^.Vol. II.. p. 68K while quoting Charlevoix 
says this is a mistake. Whether the authorities s;;\v fit to act up<.m it or not, iu nowise 
lessens the value of Nelsons warning. 

« DvHHJOl, N. 11. ' BKOoiiFiKia>. Mass * WAVKuviLifc;. Mk. 



lem-nm] THE REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID 93 

methods which, at need, had so easily converted a 
common dwelliug-house into a fortress. During this 
summer another strong work was built in Fort «t s«» 
Maine, near the site of Phillips's old garri- ^*^'" 

son, at the falls of the Saco,^ and at the head of nhip navi- 
gation on this river, designed partly to cover the Saco 
setth.-ments and partly as a trading-post, as a means of 
drawing the Indians of this region away from the French 
to the English interest, by furnishing them with l>etter 
and cheaper goods than the French did. 

Dismayed by the failure at Pemaquid, alarmed at see- 
ing one avenue after another to the coast being steadily 
closed against them, of their o^^^l accord the hostile 
tribes now sued for peace. As the English were only 
too glad to meet them half way, a treaty was soon 
signed by some thirteen of the principal chiefs, by which 
they bound themselves not to commit any Peace with 

hostile acts for the future ; but to be true '"*'^^- 

and faithful subjects to the King of England. Five Ind- 
ian hostages were delivered as a pledge of good faith ; 
and to all appearances, the blessings of peace were now 
to blot out the ravages of war. This treaty was 
signed and sealed at Pemaquid, August 11, 1693, be- 
tween Phips and the chief sagamores of the eastern 
tribes. 

' It wAJg an irregaUr pentagon, with a Xowvr.—HuU:hiruon. It etood six miles from 
the sea, in what us nam th.e Laoonis Compaoj's premites, io Biddeford. 



XI 

DURHAM DESTROYED 

July 18, 1694 

Thus, unexpectedly, the war seemed to have worn it- 
self out. To both parties it promised a much needed 
season of respite. But beneath this calm, there lurked 
the gathering storm. In Canada, news of the treaty 
caused real consternation, as well it might. The French 
were alarmed for fear that the New England tribes 
Treaty alarms would finally go ovcr to the English, if the 
Canada. peacc should hold, thus defeating the policy, 

as crafty as it was cruel, of sacrificing the miserable Abe- 
nakis to the vain hope of regaining what Avas clearly lost 
to them forever. When the weapon had grown too dull 
for further use, it would be cast aAvay. But, meantime, 
this living barrier to Canada must not be broken down. 

Instructed by their superiors, the French missionaries 
domesticated among the Kennebec and Penobscot tribes, 
now set themselves vigorously to work to break off the 
truce. The first step was to dispose of any lingering 
scruples on the score of conscience or honor ; otherwise, 
even these rude barbarians, if left to themselves, might 
viiiieu's have hesitated. They were told that to 

efforts. break faith with heretics was no sin. The 

ground being thus prepared, an ofiicer, named Yillieu,^ 
went about from village to village, urging these tribes 

' Commandant iiL I'enobscot. 



1694] DURHAM DESTROYED 95 

to dig up the hatchet again. Large presents were given 
them ; they were flattered, feasted, and cajoled to their 
heart's content; old wrongs were artfully dwelt upon, 
until the slumbering embers of rage and hate flamed up 
again with tenfold fury. A generous supply of brandy 
did the rest. 

All this time the desolated border was enjoying a 
season of long-wished-for repose, of thrice happy relief 
from that state of care and watchfulness which had 
made life on the border not worth living. Once, indeed, 
the New Hampshire settlers were on the point of aban- 
doning the province in despair. They were now told 
to go about their usual vocations without fear. 

It is true that some mutterings of the coming storm 
had led to certain precautionary measures. Permanent 
garrisons were now established in Amesbury, Haverhill, 
Billerica ( including Tewksbury ), Chelmsford, Dun- 
stable, Groton and Marlborough. To prevent the deser- 
tion of the frontier, the General Court, in March, 1694, 
enacted a law, providing that if any person having a 
freehold in the towns named should desert the same, 
during the war, his estate should be forfeited. 

But in this state of false security the midsummer of 
1694 found the inhabitants of New Hampshire. Their 
villages were mostly widely scattered farms, growing just 
a little more compact toward the central part, where the 
bare, barn -like meeting-house stood, like a shepherd 
tending his flock. For families so dispersed there 
could be no central rallying point. Every man must 
defend his own home as best he might. Nothing was 
more easy, then, than for a numerous enemy to cut off 
each dwelling from its neighbor. 

Yillieu's arts, backed by the efforts of the mission- 



96 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1694 

aries, had prevailed. Casting the treaty to the winds, 
Madockawando and Moxus, of Penobscot, declared for 
war. Portions of the Penobscots, Norridgewocks, and 
Maquoits, with a sprinkling of warriors from the tribes 
farther east, were out on the war-path again. 

The three hundred warriors, thus scraped together 
by Yillieu, had singled out the pretty little village of 
Oyster Eiver, now Durham,^ N. H., for fire and slaughter. 
No hint of their murderous intent had reached that 
Treaty peaceful Settlement, although some few 

broken. Indians had been seen lurking in the 

neighborhood ; but their presence had provoked no 
distrust, as they had disappeared without doing any 
mischief. These were really scouts sent on ahead to get 
exact information how best to assault the place. 

Scattered along the high grounds were some twelve 
garrison-houses, enough to have sheltered all of the in- 
habitants, if warned in season. Most of them, how- 
ever, not dreaming of danger so near, slept in their own 
houses, instead of going to the garrisons at night. And 
there being no suspicion, a loose watch was kept. 

The settlement stretched out some miles along both 
banks of Oyster River, clustering thickest about the 
falls, where John Dean's saw-mill stood, with the meet- 
ing-house occupying a gentle eminence just beyond ; 
and where also the roads, east and west, came together. 
The country round is pleasingly rolled about in low 
hills, then well wooded, rendering the approach of an 
enemy all the more easy. 

Villieu reached the vicinity undiscovered on Tuesday 
evening, July 17, 1694. He halted near the falls till 
after dark, then divided his folloAvers into two bands, 

1 First forming a part of Dover. 



1694] DURHAM DESTROYED 97 

one taking the south and the other the north side of the 
river, so as to make a clean sweep of the whole settle- 
ment. Bomazeen went with the Indians Durham 
told off to the south side, while Captain destroyed. 
Nathaniel put himself at the head of those on the north. 
The two bands then broke up into parties of eight or 




WOODMAN GARRISON, DURHAM, N. H. 



ten each, in order to fall on as many houses as possible 
at once, as soon as it should be light. 

Had this plan succeeded, it is probable that a much 
greater loss of life w^ould have been the result. 

It chanced, however, that John Dean had planned to 
go on a journey that morning. He had risen early and 
was just leaving his house, near his mill, when he was 
seen, fired at, and killed on the spot. The alarm was thus 
given before some of the assailants had reached their 
7 



98 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1694 

designated stations, giving some families time to seek 
safety in flight, or to stand on their defence, as their 
fears or their courage prompted them. 

At the signal the Indians fell with fury upon the 
settlement, and the butchery began. 

Each house has its own sickening tale to tell. There 
was little or no fighting. It was all doAvnright butch- 
ery. At each the same course was pursued. The 
savages surrounded it, beat down the doors, and rushed 
in upon the startled inmates, awakened from slumber to 
see a dozen painted assassins menacing them with instant 
death. The men were mostly tomahawked on the spot, 
the women, torn shrieking from their hiding-places, 
dragged away to endure a captivity but little better than 
death itself. 

John Dean's death has been mentioned. His house 
was quickly assaulted. Mrs. Dean, with her little 
daughter, was seized and taken two miles up the river, 
where they were left in charge of an old Indian, while 
the captors went off to perform other exploits. The old 
savage, who spoke a little broken English, complained 
nrs. Dean's of having a bad headache, and asked Mrs. 
escape. Dean what he should do for it. Seeing 

him have a bottle of rum, the poor woman told him to 
drink that and it would cure him. The savage, nothing 
loth, drank freely, and soon fell fast asleep. The 
prisoners immediately fled to the woods, where they 
lay hid until night, when, finding all quiet, they plucked 
up the courage to return home. A heap of blackened 
ruins was all that was left of it. The fugitives then 
found a canoe, in which they paddled down the river to 
Lieutenant Burnham's garrison, where they again found 
themselves among friends. 



1694] DURHAM DESTROYED 99 

Of course the garrisons were especially marked for 
destruction. Jones's was one of the first to be attacked. 
Awakened, just before day, by the barking of his dogs, 
he went out to see if the wolves were not prowling 
about his hog -pen. Finding nothing wrong there, he 
turned back to the house. Still uneasy, he climbed up 
into a flanker, and sat down on the wall to Jones's 

listen. He was hardly seated when the adventure. 

flash of a gun lighted up the gray twilight. Upon the 
impulse of the moment Jones threw himself back- 
ward, and drew his body up into a heap. The move- 
ment saved his life, as the bullet struck in the place he 
had just quitted. Finding the people here on their 
guard, the Indians drew off after firing a few shots out 
of spite. 

Adams's garrison made no resistance. Fourteen per- 
sons were killed here. Drew surrendered on the prom- 
ise of having his life spared, but Avas immediately slain. 
His nine-year-old boy was then made to run the gaunt- 
let of a double file of Indians who, at length, despatched 
him with their hatchets. Thomas Edgerly and his son, 
both wounded, made their escape by taking to their 
boat, and paddling off down the river. Beard's and 
Meader's also were abandoned, making in all five gar- 
risons taken without firing a shot. The remaining 
seven resisted every assault, although one or two had 
narrow escapes from capture. At Burnham's,^ where the 
gate carelessly had been left open over night, the in- 
mates barely secured it in time to save themselves from 
a surprise. 

Thomas Bickford saved his garrison with rare courage 
and address. It stood near the river, surrounded by 

1 The house in which Mrs. Dean took shelter. 



100 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1694 

the usual palisade. Hearing the alarm, he seut off his 
family in a boat, shut his gate, took down his gun, and 
stood on his defence, resolved to risk his life for his 
homestead. Soon the house was surrounded. He was 
Bickford'8 Urged to Surrender ; then threatened. But 

defence. promises and threats alike failed to bring 

the wary Bickford out of his fortress. His only reply 
was to lire at his besiegers as fast as he could load his 
gun, showing himself first at one loophole, then at 
another, always in a different hat or cap, and shouting 
out his orders as if there were a number of men in the 
garrison with him. Deceived by these artifices, the 
Indians withdrew to some easier conquest, leaving the 
brave Bickford master of the property he had so ably 
defended. 

As each house was carried it was set on fire, until 
some twenty, or half the settlement, were blazing at 
once, over the mutilated bodies of their inmates. 

While the Indians were thus rioting in fire and 
slaughter, Father Thury, their chaplain and father- 
confessor, made his way into the Puritan meeting-house, 
where he amused himself by writing with chalk upon 
the pulpit what was probably meant as a warning to all 
heretics to beware how they provoked the just anger of 
heaven in future. Unfortunately, the purport of the 
message is not preserved. 

Having completed their bloody work as far as possi- 
ble, the scattered bands now came together again at the 
falls, whence they presently moved off in a body to 
assault Woodman's garrison,^ which stood a little out 

1 This venerable structure, built by John Woodman about 1670. was still standing a 
little off the Madbury road when the above was written. Within thirty days after 
my visit to it, nothing was left but the tall chimney-stack, it having been burned to 
the ground on November 9, 1896. It was one of the best preserved specimens of its 



1694] 



DURHAM DESTROYED 



101 



of the village on a commanding eminence overlooking 

the whole course of the morning's bloody work. 

Finding Woodman prepared to give them 

a warm reception, and fearing that the 

country people would soon rally to attack them, the 

assailants drew off, after hearing mass for their victory, 



Woodman's 
Garrison. 




BUINS OF WOODMAN GARRISON. 



with their prisoners and booty. Only one man of them 
had been wounded, as they report. 

They left Durham a shambles. Not far from a hun- 

time to be found in New England. The situation v> superb, overlooking the country 
for miles around. On a beautiful wooded knoll to the south rest the remains of 
seven generations of the Woodman family, from Joh i Woodman, the earliest occupant 
of these grounds, in 1659, to the latest in 1S62. 



102 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1694 

clred inoffensive persons had been shot down or toma- 
hawked, in cold blood. ^ About thirty were led away 
into captivity. For six miles np and down both sides 
of the river the place was in a manner laid waste. 
Twenty dwellings were burned to the ground and many 
cattle wantonly killed. The survivors were aghast at 
the scene of desolation around them, and a great dread 
fell upon the country far and near. 

All, however, was not yet ended. The tale of blood 
was to have its bloody sequel. While the enemy's 
main body was making good its retreat, a picked band, 
led by the chief Moxus, not satisfied with the carnage 
just committed at Durham, struck off toward the Mer- 
rimac in search of more victims. A small party first 
crossed the Piscataqua, where they fell upon some farm 
laborers who were at work in the hay fields without a 
guard, and killed Mrs. Ursula Cutts, widow of the late 
chief magistrate of New Hampshire, with three others. 

Avoiding the settlements lying farther to the w^est, 
the crafty Moxus now made a large detour, crossed the 
Merrimac unperceived, and after making such a march 
as only savages out on the war-path are capable of, on 
the 27th of July, at daybreak, made a determined 
assault upon Groton, Mass., some thirty -two miles 
Hoxus strikes from Boston. At Lieutenant Lakin's gar- 
Groton. rison the assailants were handsomely re- 

pulsed, but in the scattered parts of the village, where 
the inhabitants were taken wholly unawares, twenty-two 
persons were killed and thirteen carried off into captiv- 
ity. Of one family of Longleys, the father, mother, and 



• The accounts vary between 80 and 100. Sevvall gives 90 odd : Lieutenant-Governor 
Usher, 93; Parkman follows Villieu, who 8iiys 130. By subtracting prisoners he obtains 
104 as the number slain. — Villieu to the Minister, September 7, 1694. 



1694] DURHAM DESTROYED. 103 

five childreu were slain on the spot, and three children 
taken captives.^ 

This audacious blow, struck, as it were, within reach 
of the most populous parts of the province, brought the 
dread possibilities of the war home to every man's door. 
Having regard to its intimidating effects, it was, from 
the enemy's standpoint, much the most brilliant exploit 
so far of which they could boast. 

It is supposed that this was the same band of 
marauders, who, at their returning, slew three persons 
at Spruce Creek (Eliot), one at York, and eight more at 
Kittery. These murders happened between August 
20th and 24th. No loss worth mentioning had been 
inflicted in return. 

Deep exasperation followed these wanton acts, yet it 
was the old story told over again. Truth to say, the 
English, or those who had the management of civil and 
military affairs, seem always to have been dull in esti- 
mating the value of Indian treaties or the Indian 
character, and presumed too much upon pledges of no 
more real worth than the scratch of a bear's paw. But 
the Indians had dealt their blow, and were now waiting 
to see the result of the storm they had so unexpectedly 
raised. 

1 Thb town has since caused a monument to be erected to their memory on the 
site of their old home. One of the surviving daughters, Lydia, was baptized in the 
Roman Catholic faith, in Canada. John, a boy of twelve, was ransomed, but four 
years of savage life had so won upon him that he had to be brought away by force. 
Betty, another daughter, died iu captivity. 



XII 

A YEAR OF DISASTERS 

1694—1696 

It happened that some of the leaders in the horrid 
work at Durham had been recognized.^ Among the 
number were the two Doneys,^ of Saco, who had so 
lately put their hands to the broken treaty of Pemaquid. 
"When the noise caused by that affair had a little sub- 
sided, Robin Doney, a most hardened wretch, and three 
more of his comrades, with brazen impudence, sauntered 
into the fort at Saco as if nothing had happened. They 
were immediately seized by the command- 
ing officer's orders. In like manner, Bom- 
azeen and two others were taken at Pemaquid and sent 
to Boston, where they were kept in close confinement. 
November 24, It IS true that Bomazeen came into the fort 
'^^4* under the protection of a flag ; but his cap- 

tors, in their eagerness to secure so redoubtable an 
enemy, were not more disposed to stick at a little de- 
ception than the Indians themselves, with whom such 
artifices were more often a merit than a crime. At any 
rate, the authorities now considered that they had ob- 
tained more substantial security than empty pledges, 
and the prisoners were accordingly held in close custody. 

1 Statement of Doney's woman servjint. who made hor oscajie. Mans. Archives. 

2 Said to have been the mongrel descendant^ of D'Auliiay, French governor of 
Acadia, whose name is so pronounced. Hutchinson, II., 81, iiote. 



1694-1696] A YEAR OF DISASTERS 



105 



Meantime, in November, Sir William Phips had sailed 
for England in order to answer to certain charges pre- 
ferred against him there of official misconduct. In his 
absence the conduct of affairs devolved upon Lieutenant- 
Governor Stoughton, who belonged to the Phips goes to 
old wing of the Puritan party, which the ^"2'""^' 

force of events had lately pushed somewhat into the back- 
ground. While waiting for his case to be decided, Phips 
was seized with an illness, of which he died in Febru- 
ary, leaving behind him the memory of a career as re- 
markable for its f ailui-es as for its successes, and of a 
personality in which the good and the bad were so 
mingled as to leave in doubt whether his brief rule was 
or Avas not of benefit to his country. 

The year 1695 was one of comparative quiet. One of 
those periodical epidemics, with which the Indians were 
now and then scourged, was again making frightful rav- 
ages among them. This kept them from going out on 
the war-path, and, it was thought, would dispose them 
to listen to overtures for a lasting peace. At any rate, 
the experiment was worth trying. With this view,^ one 
of the hostages was released, and sent out as a mediator 
to the hostile tribes.^ In times past he had been one 
of the Apostle Eliot's converts, but had Futile efforts 
relapsed into paganism again. Through for peace, 

his influence two captive children were brought to 
Storer's garrison at Wells, on May 1st, and several more 

XSHEEP8C0T JoHN-so Called. He carried a letter from Lieutenant-Governor 
Stoughton, couched in rather haughty terms, in which the ^^^ *";;^;;;^'^^7 
in the late atrocities at Oy.ter River and Groton were commanded to dehver up not 
only the prisoners taken, but also the chiefs who had taken part m the <!--"- To 
these demands Asacambuit, of Norridgewock, returned a most u.solent reply, .t ongly 
suggestive of the hands of the Jesuit missionary, denouncing, - ""™<^^;"^f ^*^\™^' 
the violation of the flags sent into Pemaquid and Saco. and breathing nothmg but re- 



venge. 



106 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1694-1G96 

to Pemaquid ou the 20tli, with the promise that the 
rest should be given up within twenty days, at which 
time they would be ready to make a treaty. Commis- 
sioners therefore met the Indian delegates at the time 
appointed, at Pemaquid. As a first step the return of 
all English captives was insisted upon. Not seeing 
Bomazeen or his fellow-hostages there, whom they had 
fully expected to get back by an exchange, man for man, 
the Indians believed they were being cheated, and went 
off in a pet. 

Notice was immediately despatched to put the frontiers 
on their guard, and again were the poverty-stricken set- 
tlers compelled to abandon their own homes, with such 
little comforts as they were able to command, for the 
narrow limits of the garrisons, which, indeed, promised 
safety, if little else. This sort of life, if life it can be 
called, had now endured for seven years, with only short 
intervals of repose from the daily and hourly menace of 
sudden death. Little wonder, then, if a stoical indiffer- 
ence to danger had grown up out of the habit of always 
facing it or that a great many lost their lives through 
sheer recklessness, or worse — as the long list of casualties, 
occurring between July and November, sufficiently shows. 
Biiierica, saco, At Kittery, Me., Major Hammond was 
and Pemaquid. taken prisoner, and carried to Canada ; at 
Biiierica ^ ten persons were killed, and five carried off 
into captivity ; at Saco Fort Sergeant Haley was slain ; at 

1 This occurred August 5th, in what is now Tewksbury. On that day a number of 
horsemen were seen approaching, but were not suspected of being Indians until they 
surrounded the house of John Rogers. Rogers received a mortal wound from an arrow 
while in bed and asleep. He woke with a start, withdrew the arrow, and expired. 
Rogers's son and daughter were taken captive. A woman who was scalped, and left for 
dead, recovered. Of John Leviston's family, six were killed and one taken. Dr. Roger 
Toothaker's wife was killed and his daughter carried off. It is said that the Indians 
had even tied up the mouths of the dogs for fear of being betrayed by their barking. 



1694-1696] A YEAR OF DISASTERS 107 

Pemaquid ^ four more were killed and six wounded, out 
of twenty-four men at work outside the fort. Nine per- 
sons were also captured at Newbuiy, and hurried off into 
the woods. Being overtaken at their first camp, the 
marauders, according to their usual custom, Newbury men 
when hard pressed, tomahawked all the taken. 

prisoners on the spot. Strange to say, none were killed 
outright, though all subsequently died of their wounds, 




INDIAN HEAD BREAKER. 

except one youth, who luckily received the blow from 
the hatchet on his shoulder, instead of his head, and so 
escaped a lingering death. 

Having had several men shot down, while at work 
outside the fort, the garrison at Pemaquid were in a 
revengeful mood. Captain Pascho Chubb had relieved 
Major March of the command. His qualifications for 
so important a post do not appear, yet a strange fatuity 
seems to have put him there. The sequel was a tragedy 
in which Chubb showed himself utterly unfitted for the 
trust committed to him. 

In the month of February, 1696, on a Sunday, a party 
of Indians came before the fort, with a flag, and de- 
manded a parley. Chubb and some others went out to 
meet them. Three noted chiefs, Egeremet, Abenquid, 
and Moxus, were with the other party. In only one re- 
spect is the account of what afterward happened at all 
clear. The object of demanding the parley was said to 

1 In September. Hugh March was one of the slain. 



108 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1694-1696 

be the exchange of prisoners. In view of the late attacks 
on the garrison, fear of treacher}^ was no doubt upper- 
chiefs killed at most in the minds of both parties. Mutual 
Pemaquid. recrimination was probable. Yet what 

actually passed is shrouded in mystery. All positively 
known is, that the English suddenly fell upon the Ind- 
ians, that weapons were drawn, and that in the melee 
Egeremet and Abenquid, two as untamed spirits as ever 
lifted the war-hatchet, were killed on the spot. * Two 
others of the party were slain, and one or more made 
prisoners.^ Moxus freed himself from the grasp of his 
enemies and made good his escape. For thus putting 
himseK on a level with savages, Chubb unaccountably 
escaped formal censure, perhaps, as Mather naively re- 
marks, because some well enough liked the thing that 
was done, although they did not like the manner of 
doing it. To his credit be it said, Mather was not 
enough of a Jesuit to stomach such unpardonable 
baseness. 

It was but natural that the Indians should exact 
prompt and bloody reparation. With the spring, there- 
fore, a new chapter of massacres began, the Piscataqua 
settlements now being the particular objects of the en- 
emy's fury. 

The densely wooded country around York, Me., out 
of which rises the blue dome of Mount Agamenticus, 
was threaded by a lonely horse-path uniting the villages 
of York and Wells. As Thomas Cole and his wife Abi- 
gail, with two others, were returning home from a visit 
to York, they were waylaid in these woods. Cole and 
his wife were shot dead. The others made good their 

1 Chablevoix's account that two Euglish were slain in this encounter lacks con- 
firmation. 



1694-1696] A YEAR OF DISASTERS 109 

escape. On the 26th of June a large body of Indians 
crossed over from York Nubble to Eye Beach in their 
canoes, hid their canoes among the bushes, 
and made a violent assault upon the scat- 
tered houses lying some two miles below Portsmouth. 
Fourteen persons were killed outright, one was scalped 
and left for dead, and four taken. After plundering 
the houses, the enemy set them on fire, and then hastily 
made ofi'. They were so closely pursued by a party 
of militia from Portsmouth, that, having halted on the 
slope of a hill to eat their breakfast,^ the captives and 
plunder were retaken, but owing to bad management the 
marauders got to their canoes again in safety. A month 
later the people of Dover were w^aylaid while returning 
from public worship, three killed, three wounded, and 
three carried away into captivity. 

While the Piscataqua settlements were being thus ter- 
rorized, a blow was struck in another quarter which 
swept away every vestige of that easy-going confidence 
hitherto reposed in stone walls, as such, regardless of 
whether they were, or were not, properly manned or 
commanded. True, the poverty of the country com- 
pelled the strictest economy to be practised, yet adher- 
ence to a penny-wise, pound-foolish policy, born of a 
native reluctance to spend, lay at the bottom of many a 
disaster which might have been averted. Most impru- 
dently, while taking counsel of their own poverty, the 
authorities wholly failed to take into account the old 
soldier at Quebec. 

Frontenac had only postponed his purpose of taking 
Pemaquid at all hazards. Everything was carefully 
planned at Quebec, and Villebon, at St. John, was ready 

1 For this reason since called Breakfast Hill ; between Eye and Greenland. 



110 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1694-1696 

to lend his assistance. In July, 1696, a second expedi- 
tion was despatched against the English fortress. There 
were two war-ships, commanded by Le Moyne d' Iber- 
ville and de Bonaventure, and a mixed force of Indians, 
picked up on the way at St. John and Penobscot, com- 




IN THE BAY OF FUNDY. 



manded by the younger St. Castin. In the Bay of Fundy, 
Iberville fell in with two English ships- of -war, sent 
there to intercept Villebon's supplies. A sharp combat 
at once took place, in the course of which one of the 
English vessels, the Newport, was dismasted and taken. 
The other made her escape in a fog. 

Having thus rid himself of what might have proved 



10^4-1696] A YEAR OF DISASTERS 111 

tlie ruin of his attempt then and there, Iberville, after 
refitting his prize, made sail again, and on August 14:th 
the ships cast anchor before the fort. 

Pemaquid is a peninsula. The fort stood at the 
shore, facing the sea. Castin immediately broke ground 
in the rear of the fortress, where the cemetery now is, 
thus cutting off communication on the land side. Bat- 
teries were also thrown up on the adja- Pemaquid 
cent islands, wdth so much industry that taken. 
the investment of the place was quickly completed, both 
by land and sea. 

Captain Chubb was still in command of the fort, with 
less than a hundred men to defend it. Incapacity or 
indifference, it matters little which, had left it in this 
weak state. 

The besiegers worked so diligently that their batteries 
were ready to open fire on the afternoon of the next day 
after landing.^ The fort was then summoned. Chubb 
retorted defiantly enough, but lost coui^age upon the ex- 
plosion of a few shells inside his works, reinforced by a 
savage threat from Castin to give no quarter, and threw 
open his gates to the elated besiegers, who were far from 
expecting so easy a conquest. 

Once more the victorious enemy dismantled the works 
and threw down the walls, constructed with so much 
labor, yet defended with so little spirit. 

By the terms of the surrender Chubb and his men 
were paroled and sent to Boston. So incensed were the 
Indians against him that the whole garrison, doubtless, 
would have fallen victims to their fury, if Chubb, who 
knew only too well what he might expect from them, 

1 M. Thttrt. who seems to have been more at home among Pi7ch scenes than in his 
mission, with Father Simon, assisted in this work, each doing his very best. 



112 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1694-1696 

had not stipulated for a safeguard until his men could 
be embarked. AVhen they reached Boston Chubb was 
Chubb put promptly put in arrest and lodged in gaol, 

in arrest. Avhere he lay until the next spring, by 

which time the feeling against him had so far cooled 
that his imprisonment was deemed a sufficient punish- 
ment, and he was allowed to go to his home at Andover, 
and there hide his disgrace in retirement. 

Meanwhile, another expedition was forming at Bos- 
ton, under Church's command, to go and clear the east- 
ern frontiers of enemies again. Before it was ready to 
move news came that Pemaquid had fallen. That disas- 
ter redoubled the exertions to get Church to work, for 
it was thought that the victorious enemy might come to 
the westward as far as Portsmouth, that place being 
nearly defenceless against an attack from sea. 

It was soon learned, however, that Iberville's squad- 
ron had set sail for the eastward instead, after com- 
pleting the destruction of Pemaquid ; so that fears of an 
attack were removed, only to give place to apprehen- 
sions that he and his savage allies might now make 
their escape unscathed. 

It chanced that three men-of-war were then lying idle 
in Boston harbor. These ships, with two armed mer- 
chant vessels, and some few land forces, were hurried 
off in pursuit of Iberville's squadron. It was sighted, 
but lost again among the intricate passages of the east- 
ern coast, with which the French pilots were much bet- 
ter acquainted than the English. 

Church's expedition proved an even worse failure. 
With their usual fatuity the authorities had seen fit to 
release an Indian prisoner from gaol while Church was 
getting ready. News of his coming had thus every- 



1694-1696] A YEAR OF DISASTERS 113 

where preceded him, with the result that wherever 
Church went, the Indians had buried themselves deeper 
in the woods. In vain he tried every means known to 
his experience to conceal his presence or church goes 
throw these wily foemen off their guard. out again. 

All Avas of no use. His ill-fortune dogged him like his 
shadow. In order to be able to move his men at will, 
and undiscovered, he had provided himself with whale- 
boats, in the handling of which his Cape Indians were 
thoroughly at home. The better to hide his intended 
movements from the vigilant savages Church steered 
first for Monhegan Island, ten miles off the mainland at 
Pemaquid, where his vessels were securely hid from 
prying eyes. Then, manning his whaleboats at night- 
fall, he rowed across into Penobscot Bay, and, after 
concealing the boats among the bushes at daybreak, 
ranged the woods up and down in search of the savages. 
In this way the western shores and islands of the bay 
were scouted from Owl's Head to Bangor, without get- 
ting sight of more than four or five wandering savages 
in a region usually much frequented by them. 

Finding the seacoast deserted as far as Mount Desert, 
Church now sailed over a long course, landing next at 
Chignecto or Beaubassin, in Acadia, which place he 
plundered and burned. The inhabitants, chignecto 

both French and Indians, fled at his com- burned. 

ing, but some of the former returned upon promise of 
good usage. After reading them a sharp lecture upon 
the barbarities practised by the savages upon the Eng- 
lish, and forcibly contrasting it with his own magna- 
nimity in now keeping his Indians from knocking them 
aU in the head, Church took his departure for the St. 
John River. 



114 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1694-1696 

Here there was a trifling skirmish with some workmen, 
who were building a new fort at the mouth of the river, in 
which affair one Frenchman was killed and one wounded 
and taken. From the wounded man it was learned where 
the great guns, intended for the fort, had been buried 
At St. John below high water mark. These were 
^^y^r- secured. Church now called a council to 

decide whether an attempt should be made on Yillebon's 
fort, situated still higher up the river. It was thought 
impracticable, as the river was so low, and Church ac- 
cordingly turned homeward. 

While on the way back. Church fell in with a rein- 
forcement, under Lieutenant-Colonel Hathorne, who, be- 
sides superseding him in the command, to his great 
chagrin, promptly ordered him back to St. John again. 
Yillebon's fort was reached and attacked this time, but 
to no purpose, as the English were beaten off without 
much effort. And so this expedition ended, like the 
others that had gone before it, in disappointment ^ and 
disgrace. 

Meanwhile, Iberville, after eluding the squadron sent 
in pursuit of him, had gone to Newfoundland, where he 
virtually possessed himself of the whole island, by1;ak- 
ing St. John's, its chief port. Bonavista and Carboniere 
Island remained in the hands of the English, only be- 
cause the cold weather put a stop to further operations. 
This conquest, so important in every way to French 
interests, from its bearing upon the control of the Bank 
fisheries, was thrown away as quickly as it was made, 

1 CHtrECH. justly oflEended at being superseded, is silent about this afifair. Hutchin- 
son, II., 94, gives some details, not found elsewhere, perhaps taken from Hathorne's 
journal of the expedition. Charlevoix confuses the part taken by th« English squad- 
ron with that acting under Church and Hathorne. 



1694-16%] A YEAR OF DISASTERS 115 

because no measures had been concerted to hold what 
had been gained. Iberville, therefore, burned St. John's 
and went back to Placentia, where the French had a 
poor establishment, placed there more with an eye to 
covering the French half of the island than for its ad- 
vantages as a port of commerce. 

Though Newfoundland was the more remote. New 
England had far more at stake there than she had in 
Acadia, which was, at best, little more than an incum- 
brance, saddled upon her by the new charter. Indeed 
to shut the ports of Newfoundland against her would lit- 
erally have taken the bread out of the mouths of thou- 
sands of New England fishermen and their families, 
besides seriously crippling many other branches of in- 
dustry closely depending upon these fisheries. It was 
not accident, but its conceded appropriateness, there- 
fore, which first made the codfish the chosen symbol of 
Massachusetts, as it continues to be to this day. 

In so far, therefore, as these operations threatened to 
cripple the resources of New England for carrying on the 
war, as they undoubtedly w^ould have done if turned to 
better account, they should not be lost sight of ; for the 
cutting off of its water-supply, at its source, from a 
beleaguered city could hardly have proved more ruin- 
ous to the besieged than the cutting off of the New- 
foundland fisheries from New England ; and it was not 
to be believed that England would permit France to 
exclude her from these fisheries without a struggle. 

For the English this had been a year of disasters, 
with hardly one redeeming feature upon which to build 
hope for the future. At its close the advantage rested 
wholly with the enemy. East and west, the hostile 



116 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1694-1696 

tribes were now acting togemer as one man. Acadia 
liad been lost, Pemaquid demolished. Mucli had been 
expected from the expeditions of Church and Ha- 
thorne ; nothing realized. It is well, therefore, to turn 
over a new leaf of the sombre tragedy, now happily 
drawing toward its close. 



XIII 

ONSLAUGHT AT HAVERHILL 

March 15, 1697 

During this war the newer settlements, forming a sec- 
ond line between the Merrimac and Piscataqua, and thus 
becoming so many outposts to the old sea-coast settle- 
ments, suffered much by reason of their exposed sit- 
uation. Yet the careless settlers do not seem to have 
realized their danger overmuch, or else long familiarity 
only served to render them indifferent to it. 

Of all these villages little Haverhill, with its thirty 
odd houses, was perhaps the most exposed, because the 
Merrimac offered such a short and easy route of attack. 
Moreover, the Pennacooks, of this river, were well ac- 
quainted with every nook and corner of the place. 

There was the village, nestling close along the bank 
of the Merrimac for its own protection, and there was a 
hamlet boldly thrown out on the hills rising behind it. 
Village and hamlet were a long mile apart, with a slug- 
gish stream, Little River, crawling between them. In 
the village there were three block-houses, Haverhni 

conveniently placed for its defence, to '" ^^97- 

which the inhabitants might fly in case of an alarm ; 
and it is not unlikely that some of the scattered farm- 
houses were expected to serve the same purpose at need ; 
but those families who, in such unsettled times as these, 



118 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

thus ventured to live apart from neighbors, were suie to 
bear the brunt of a hostile onset. 

It was on the 15th day of March, 1697, Avhen the 
hills are bleak and bare, the woods yet streaked with 
snow, and the raw north wind sweeps over the frozen 
earth in fierce and fitful blasts, that the war-whoop 
sounded the onslaught so long remembered. 

It so chanced that Thomas Dustan, husbandman, rode 
out that morning to his field, which lay at some distance 
off from his house. He saw the Indians coming. He 
had that morning left his wife, Hannah, lying on a sick 
bed, with Mary Neff, her nurse, and his 
eight children, whose ages ran from two to 
seventeen years, wholly unprotected. There was not a 
moment to lose. Dustan rode hard, with the Indians 
whooping and yelling behind him, like so many demons 
let loose. By outstripping them, he gained a few pre- 
cious moments in which to prepare for instant flight. 

First telling his frightened children to run for their 
lives to the nearest garrison (a weary way for those tod- 
dling little feet to travel), Dustan's next thought was to 
rescue his helpless wife from the clutches of the savages. 
Throwing the bridle on his horse, he ran into the cham- 
ber where she lay, pale and trembling at the appall- 
ing sounds now heard close at hand. If Dustan had 
dreamed of carrying her off with him, he was too late. 
Every moment's delay was putting all their lives in jeop- 
ardy. 

Distracted between the thoughts of abandoning his 
wife thus, and of saving the lives of his children, Dustan 
rushed from the house, threw himself upon his horse, 
and galloped off after them. As he rode away the ma- 
rauders were at his doors, tomahawk in hand. 



1697] ONSLAUGHT AT HAVERHILL 119 

Fortunately for him, the greedy wretches stopped to 
rifle the house. This gave Dustan a start of a few min- 
utes, which was improved to the utmost ; yet so quickly 
had all this happened that the terrified children were 
not more than forty rods from the house when the dis- 
tressed father overtook them. As his eye ran over the 
forlorn little gi'oup, his heart may well have sunk within 
him. To save all seemed out of the question. The 
whole could travel no faster than the youngest of them 
all, while the shouts of his pursuers announced that 
they were already on his track, and would soon be up 
with him. What was to be done ? 

For just one moment Thomas Dustan thought of 
snatching up the youngest and most helpless one of all, 
putting spurs to his horse, and leaving the rest to their 
fate. It was a horrible temptation, prompted by the 
instinct of self-preservation, but repented of on the 
instant. The thought of what that fate must be might 
well have made the strong man shudder. Scattering 
shots from his pursuers hastened his decision. Come 
what would, Dustan resolved to live or die with his little 
family. Better fall, like a man, defending them to the 
last, than live to be pointed at as the coward who had 
saved his own life by the sacrifice of his own flesh and 
blood. 

Yet it was necessary to act with all prudence and skill. 
Dustan well knew that the savages would not venture 
within gun-shot until they had first drawn his fire. 
Urging his little flock to quicken their pace, he wheeled 
his horse and levelled his gun at the nearest of his pur- 
suers, who instantly halted, expecting a shot. Dustan, 
however, knew better than to throw his only chance 
away. He kept the Indians covered with his gun until 



120 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

the children had widened the distance between them, 
then coolly rode back to rejoin them. By repeating this 
manoeuYre the savages were kept at bay, the stout-hearted 
father fortunately escaping the bullets fired at random 
in the hope of knocking him off his horse. And in this 
manner the flight and pursuit continued until the sav- 
ages had been drawn so far from their band that they 
gave over the chase in disgust. "With unspeakable re- 
lief Dustan, at length, saw his little family safe and 
sound within the shelter of a stout block-house, from 
which, on looking backward over the ground he had just 
traversed, he could see his own house in flames. 

Meanwhile, those savages who had not joined in the 
pursuit were hurriedly ransacking Dustan's house, for, 
by this time, the alarm had spread to the village, which 
was now up in arms. The nurse had been seized in the 
attempt to fly with the new-born infant before she had 
gone many rods from the house. 

Upon entering the room where Mrs. Dustan was lying 
the greasy redskins roughly bade her to get up. With 
the fear of instant death before her eyes, the poor woman 
arose, and with trembling hands began to i)ut on her 
Mrs. Dustan clothes, while her captors were busy load- 
*"'^®"- ing themselves with all the plunder they 

could carry away. This done, she was led from the 
house, which was immediately set on fire, and was soon 
blazing fiercely. 

Smoke and flames were now bursting forth from all 
the houses in the little neighborhood, which, one after 
the other, had been, in like manner, assaulted and plun- 
dered. Twenty-seven settlers lay dead or dying among 
the smoking ruins of their own peaceful dwellings. 
Thirteen miserable captives, shivering with cold and 



1697] 



ONSLAUGHT AT HAVERHILL 



121 



fright, were liuddled together, benumbed by the blow 
that had so unexpectedly fallen upon them. These were 
now being hurriedly loaded down with the 
spoil of their own houses. The savages 
then plunged into the woods, driving their prisoners be- 
fore them Uke so 
many beasts of 
burden. 

Mrs. Dustan and 
Mrs. Neff, who still 
held the baby in 
her arms, marched 
with the rest. No 
mercy was shown 
to laggards. One 
miscreant, not yet 
sated with slaugh- 
ter, tore the help- 
less infant from 
its nurse's arms 
and dashed out 
its brains against 
the nearest tree. 
Among the pris- 
oners some were 

old and feeble. Whenever one showed signs of giving 
out he was instantly despatched by the blow of a tom- 
ahawk, and his load given to another. By this means 
the retreat was pressed to the utmost. 

Though in hourly expectation of meeting with the 
same fate, Mrs. Dustan succeeded in keeping up with 
the band during the rest of the day, notwithstanding her 
extreme bodily weakness. The halt for the night brought 




DUSTAN MONUMENT. 



122 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

with it a sliort respite. She saw that none of her loved 
ones were among the little knot of captives. And with 
that knowledge, reviving hope gave her the strength still 
to bear bravely up against her cruel sufferings of mind 
and body, as in the deepening gloom she threw herself 
upon the bare earth, there to live over again in speech- 
less misery the woful tragedy of the day. 

Upon resuming their march, the hostile band separat- 
ed into small parties, the better to throw their pursuers 
off the scent. To each one was parcelled out its share of 
the prisoners and plunder. 

The party whose property Mrs. Dustan and Mrs. Neff 
had thus become took a wide circuit through the wil- 
derness of woods, hills, and waters, stretching away to the 
north. After travelling for several days longer, all fear 
of pursuit now being at an end, a more westward course 
was steered, which, at length, brought them out of the 
woods, on the shores of the Merrimac, some sixty 
odd miles, as the river runs, from their starting-point. 
In a few short hours the friendly current would have 
carried the wanderers to their homes again. 

The camp, to which the prisoners were now conducted, 
was pitched on a pleasant little island, lying at the 
mouth of the Contoocook Kiver. Here they were given 
to understand that they would remain, until such a 
time as their captors should be ready to start for Can- 
ada. Should they ever reach it alive, a long and lin- 
gering captivity awaited them. Should they perish by 
the way, who would ever know their fate ? 

The Indian family, of whom the captive women now 
formed part for the time being, consisted of two stout 
warriors, three women and their seven children. Hav- 
ing nothing to fear from two such helpless beings, no 



1697] ONSLAUGHT AT HAVERHILL 123 

very strict watch was kept upon them, nor did they meet 
with ill-usage beyond what commonly fell to the lot of 
captives in their situation, namely, to be the submissive 
and uncomplaining drudges of their tawny masters. 
Their masters already were counting upon getting a 
handsome sum for them in Canada, so it would never 
do to unlit the captives for the long march before 
them. 

Besides these twelve Indian men, women, and children 
already mentioned, there was also domesticated among 
them a captive English lad, one Samuel Leonardson, 
who already had been a year and a half in their hands, 
in the course of which he had mastered their language, 
fallen in with their way of life, and was looked upon 
and treated as one of themselves. Upon this half- 
savage stripling the last hopes of a desperate woman 
now rested. 

The captive women could not help showing by their 
looks something of the despair in their hearts. When- 
ever they could steal away by themselves, they prayed 
fervently for deliverance. Sometimes their Indian 
master would say to them, in mockery of their haggard 
looks, " What need you trouble yourself ? If your God 
will have you delivered, it shall be so." 

Not long before the time set for the long march to 
Canada to begin, the captives were told that, on arriv- 
ing at a certain Indian town, they would have to run 
the gantlet. That is to say, that they would first be 
stripped of their clothing, and then made to run through 
a lane formed of all the men, women, and children of 
the place, all armed with clubs, sticks, or tomahawks, 
with which each Indian would strike the terrified vic- 
tims as they ran. To add to their terror, they were also 



124 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

told how the weak or faint-hearted often fell senseless to 
the ground under the blows of their brutal tormentors. 

The knowledge of what was in store for them seems 
to have nerved the unhappy captives to an act of des- 
peration. Then, there was the deep-flowing Merrimac, 
always whispering " home ! home ! " as it swept by them. 

Mrs. Dustan knew that after this journey began all 
hope of escape would be over. She therefore laid her 
plans to fly before it should be too late. To attempt this 
with two stout warriors alive was not to be thought 
of. There was but one other way. They must die by 
her hands and those of her companions. 

Hannah Dustan was no delicate flower of the city, 
ready to faint at the pricking of her flnger with her 
needle, but the sturdy helpmate of a sturdy yeoman, 
whose will to do and dare had been strung to the high- 
est tension by the knowledge that there was one way 
of escape, and but one. 

This settled, the next thing was to gain over the nurse 
and the boy, Leonardson, to her plan, Avhich was to kill 
all the Indians without distinction of age or sex, except 
one boy, who was to be taken away alive. There could 
be no paltering with the situation. They knew that to 
let any escape would endanger their oAvn safety. 

From this moment, Hannah Dustan pursued her de- 
termination with Indian sagacity, and almost savage 
ferocity. 

Young Leonardson was charged to find out just Avhere 
and how to strike with the hatchet, so as to kill at one 
blow. There must be no bungling here. The lad seized 
his first chance to do so. "Strike here," replied the un- 
suspecting savage, laying a tawny finger upon his temple. 
Then drawing the same finger rapidly around his shaven 



1697] 



ONSLAUGHT AT HAVERHILL 



125 



crown, he showed the lad how the knife was used m 
taking a scalp, and how the scalp was torn from the 
victim's head. The lesson was well learned. 

The prisoners now knew what they had to do, and 




HANNAH DUSTAN SLAYS HEB CAPT0B8. 

how to do it. The time for the attempt was fixed for 
the very next night. 

In the dead of night, when the Indians lay fast asleep 
in their wigwam, three dusky forms rose noiselessly 
and stealthily up from their midst. Each grasped a 
hatchet. Each had marked a victim. Bending over 
the prostrate bodies of the sleepers, blow followed blow 
in quick succession. Mrs. Dustan's weapon was buried 
in the brain of her master ; Leonardson's in that of the 



126 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

same Indian who had directed him where to strike. 
None escaped, save a squaw, who, though sorely wound- 
ed, ran out into the thickets, where she hid 
herself, and the boy whose life they had 
agreed to spare. He got away, unharmed, in the dark- 
ness and confusion of the moment. 

Arming herself with her dead master's gun and tom- 
ahawk, Mrs. Dustan led the way to the place where 
the canoes were beached. All these were stove and 
sunk, except the one in which the fugitives now pushed 
out upon the broad river, with no other thought than to 
hasten away from the scene of slaughter. Two of their 
destined victims had saved themselves by flight. They 
knew that the next encampment was not far off, and 
would soon be alarmed. 

The shore had scarcely been left behind, however, 
when Mrs. Dustan suddenly recollected that, in the hurry 
of their flight, they had neglected to take off the scalps 
of the slain. In this woman an iron will seems united 
with cool courage and rare presence of mind. She would 
not leave the accursed spot without carrying away with 
her the bloody evidences of their exploit. These, at 
least, could not be called in question. The canoe was 
again headed for the shore, and not until the bloody 
trophies of that fearful night's work were secured did 
the fugitives again embark on their perilous voyage. 

It was beset with dangers. Many a hideous fall or 
treacherous shallow lay between the fugitives and their 
destined haven. Not far below their starting-point, 
the bed of the river is heaved up, from shore to shore, 
in huge masses of jagged rock, through which the pent- 
up waters boil and plunge mth indescribable fury. 
Here the canoe had to be unloaded and carried around 



1697] ONSLAUGHT AT HAVERHILL 127 

the falls, before it could be launched into smooth wa- 
ter again. Below these again, the free course of the 
river is much broken by rifts and shallows, where only 
a skilful handling of the paddle could keep the canoe 
from oversetting. Hardly was one danger surmounted 
before the distant roar of angry waters told them of an- 
other ahead. Down this perilous road the fugitives 
held their steady course, hope rising higher and higher 
as the long leagues of wooded 
shores swept majestically by 
them. They took turns at the 
paddle, keeping a sharp look- 
out for lurking enemies. In 
the night two slept while 
the third plied the paddle.^ 
Half-starved, worn out with 
unceasing labor and watch- 
fulness, the feelings with 
which the weary wanderers otstan tankabd. 

saw at last the familiar shores 

and cottages of Haverhill rising before them can only 
be guessed. They were welcomed home as beings risen 
from the dead. 

The story of the exploit soon spread throughout the 
length and breadth of the colonies, and was everywhere 
the theme of mingled wonder and admiration. After re- 
covering from the effects of their captivity, all the actors 
in this remarkable tragedy went to Boston,^ taking with 



1 It is said that the fugitives were hospitably received and entertained by Jonathan 
Tyng, at his house on Wickasuck Island. 

2 " May 1, l(i97, Hannah Dustan came to see us ; I gave her part of Connecticut 
flax. She saith her master, whom she killed, did formerly live with Mr. Rowlandson. 
at Lancaster. He told her that when he prayed the English way, he thought that was 
good, but now he found the French way was better.''— Sewall Papers. 




128 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

them the ghastly trophies tnat Hannah Dustau would not 
leave behind her. The Massachusetts General Court 
being then in session, a reward of twenty-five pounds 
was voted to the Dustans, and twelve pounds ten shil- 
lings each to Mary Neff and Samuel Leonardson. Be- 
sides this gratuity, doubly welcome to those who had 
lost their all, Governor Nicholson, of Maryland, sent 
Hannah Dustan a pewter tankard, as a mark of his re- 
gard for her remarkable heroism. This token is still in 
existence. 

Monuments have been raised to commemorate this 
exploit, both at Haverhill, where the savage onslaught 
began, and at Dustan's Island, in the town of Boscawen, 
N. H., where the maternal vengeance overtook some of 
the actors in that day's work. Yet, strange to say, even 
to this day the site of Thomas Dustan's house is not 
positively known. 



XIV 
TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK 

Unknown to the people of New England, during the 
winter of 1696-97 a blow was impending by the side of 
which Indian raids were trifles indeed. And when it 
was known, the danger itself had passed away, like the 
storm-cloud, watched in doubt and dismay, until it has 
diifted far down the darkened heavens, and light and 
sunshine have come again. 

Canada being a royal colony, its affairs were really 
directed from Versailles. For years Louis had been 
importuned to lay Boston in ashes, as the only means 
of securing the tranquillity of Canada. Hitherto, more 
weighty affairs at home had kept the project in abey- 
ance, but at last Louis was ready to act. At the ports 
of Brest and Rochefort a formidable squadron, consist- 
ing of ten heavy ships, two fire-ships and a galHot,^ was 
being fitted out, first to destroy Boston, and afterward to 
lay waste the New England coast as far as Portsmouth. 
New York and Albany were to be served pieet sails to 
in the same way, provided all went as it •*"''" Boston, 
was hoped and expected. A gOod deal of other work 
was cut out for the Marquis de Nesmond, who was to 
command ; but these were the leading objects with which 
he was charged. So much pains was taken to keep the 
project a profound secret that orders were sent to Fron- 

* A Small open, vessel, using both sails and oars and intended to chase. The crews 
were usually soldiers, laying duwn their oars to take up their muskets. 
9 



130 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

tenac to have fifteen huncWd men in readiness by a 
certain date, Avitliout letting liim know for what service 
they were wanted. 

News that this powerful armament was at sea reached 
Boston some time in the summer, and its object was so 
easily guessed that the whole country, far and near, was 
stirred as never before. At that time the reliable Major 
March was out scouting with five hundred men, at the 
eastward. Boston, as well as all the seacoast towns, was 
in a state of feverish excitement. The old fortifications 
were overhauled and repaired, new ones built, and heavy 
guns mounted along the water-front, and at the castle. 
For weeks the provincial militia were held in readiness 
to march to the threatened points. These measures are 
a sufliciently clear indication of public feeling. 

Fortunately for New England, the whole enterprise 
fell through. De Nesmond had been saddled with so 
many orders, his passage across the Atlantic was so long, 
that when he arrived at Placentia (July 24th), it was too 
late in the season to bring the cooperating land forces 
down from Quebec, where they had been 
held to prevent news of the intended de- 
scent from getting noised abroad. To this puerile 
attempt to combine the operations of a fleet and army 
three thousand miles away. New England owed her 
escape from a great danger. Old as he was, Frontenac 
would have managed the affair much better. 

In all probability, the holding of so many men inac- 
tive in Canada had a tendency to diminish the number 
of Indian raids during the summer. There were, how- 
ever, more than enough to show what a handful of creep- 
ing savages could do among thousands of unguarded 
hvisbandmen. In June a large war-party placed them- 



1697] TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK 181 

selves in ambush outside of the village of Exeter, N. H., 
meaning to make an assault early on the next morn- 
ing. Against the advice of their friends, 

T 1 ., T <. . , .„ Exeter visited. 

some women and children oi the village 
went out into the fields to gather wild strawberries. 
In order to frighten them back, some alarm guns were 
fired. This quickly brought aU the people together 
in arms, and thereby frustrated the intended attack, as 
the Indians supposed themselves discovered, and after 
firing a few random shots made a hasty retreat. One 
person was killed, another wounded, and a child carried 
off.^ 

How death lurked on every side is strongly emphasized 
by the following incident. One quiet Sabbath afternoon, 
early in July, Major Charles Frost, with several of his 
neighbors, was returning home from meeting in Eliot, 
Me. The road on which they were riding had been 
ambushed in a retired spot by an outlying party of sav- 
ages looking for scalps. To make sure of their prey, the 
lurking assassins had stuck some bushes in najor Frost 
the ground, at a turn of the path, behind ^*^'"- 

which they crouched, armed and ready. The Major's 
two sons were permitted to pass the ambuscade in safety, 
but the worthy Major, against whom the savages had 
nursed their revenge ever since the kidnapping affair at 
Dover, eight years before, was shot dead in the road. 
Dennis Downing and John Heard's wife, two of Frost's 
companions, were also killed on the spot, and Heard was 
wounded. " The good Lord keep us in these perilous 
times ! " exclaims pious Joseph Storer, in giving an ac- 
count of the affair. " The good Lord sanctify it to us 
all ! " 

1 Belknap's New Hampshire, I., 279, 280. 



132. THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1697 

In a day or two after, three men carrying tlie mail 
were w^aylaid and killed as they were leaving Wells. 
Storer warns his brother, Captain John Hill, at Saco, 
against travelling in the daytime. Indeed, the ways 
had now become so dangerous for men, that dogs were 
trained to carry the mail between exposed points. Frost 
had been a tower of strength to this weak comer of 
Maine, and it is no wonder that his death should be 
mourned as a pub- 
lic calamity. 

After commit- 
ting several more 
murders in this vi- 
cinity, the Indi- 
ans next made 

their unwelcome _ 

appearance among ~ "-^ 

,, t-i ..1 DOG MAIL-CARRIER. 

the Saco settle- 
ments. Of a party of five belonging to the garrison of 
Saco fort, who were chopping wood on Cow Island, in 
the Saco, three w^ere killed, and three more, posted as 
sentinels, but keeping careless watch, surprised and car- 
ried oif.^ In going down the river the marauders were 
fired upon from the shore, and some of them hurt. 

One tradition of this descent deserves to be preserved. 
Captain Humphrey Scamman's garrison stood on the 
bank of the river, about two miles from the sea. He 
was at work that day, mowing in his meadow, the house 
being left in charge of his wife and children. The day 
was sultry, and the labor fatiguing, so goodwife Scam- 
man presently sent their little ten-year-old boy to his 
father with a mug of ale, probably charging him to be 

' These wei o TJeutenant Fletcher ami his two sons. 




1697] 



TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK 



133 



Saco raided. 



careful not to spill it by the way. Soon after starting on 
his errand the lad caught sight of the Indians approach- 
ing the house. He instantly turned back, 
still carrying the mug in his hands, but it 
was now too late, as the Indians quickly took possession 
of the house, and made prisoners of the whole family, 
including Scamman, all 
of whom were carried off 
to Canada. At the end 
of the war they were 
released and returned 
home. Their house was 
found in the same condi- 
tion as when they had 
left it, even to the beer- 
mug^ which the fright- 
ened boy had hastily set 
down on the di-esser, 
when he ran back home 
to warn his mother of 

the approach of the ter- scammans jug. 

rible redskins. 

In September, bloody notice was served on the in- 
habitants of Lancaster, Mass., that safety was only to 
be purchased at the price of unremitting vigilance. 
This town, which had suffered so severely 
in former wars, was again completely sur- 
prised, nearly twenty persons killed, one of whom was 
the Eev. John Whiting, the young pastor of the church 
there,^ and five more carried away into captivity. 




At Lancaster. 



Two 



' This interesting relic, a brown earthen jug, evidently of Dutch make, decorated with 
an equestrian figure of William III., is now in the possession of Joseph Moody, Esq., of 
Saco. 

8 The meagre account of this affair is taken from Mather. Hutchinson loosely places 



134 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1697 

or thi-ee houses were burnt with their occupants, too 
decrepit to fly, in them. The raiders were pursued for 
two days without coming up with them. 

The long wished for peace of Kyswick was proclaimed 
at Boston, on December 10, 1697. At between three 
and four in the afternoon, eight or ten 
drums and trumpets sounded out the glad 
tidings to the citizens. Hostilities with the Indians did 
not, however, cease for some time to come, or not until 
they found out that the French no longer dared to give 
them open support. 

The winter of 1697-98, was the coldest within the mem- 
ory of his generation, Mather says. Moreover, the set- 
tlers along the Merrimac were destined to feel once and 
again the rage of their old enemies before the day of 
trial was passed. Proclamation of peace, by sound of 
trumpet in the streets of Boston, could not stay the 
stroke of the tomahawk, or turn from their bloody de- 
signs those who had a debt of vengeance yet to pay. 

In the latter part of February ^ a war-party made a 
fierce onslaught upon Andover, Mass. They had ap- 
parently singled out two of the foremost citizens for 
their prey. The house of Captain Pascho Chubb, late 
commandant at Pemaquid, was assaulted, and he and 
Killing at his wife were slain on the spot. At the 

Andover. same time the house of Lieutenant-Col- 

onel Dudley Bradstreet^ was attacked, the inmates 
dragged out of doors, one of them brutally tomahawked,^ 

the number killed at twenty or thirty. Mr. Whiting was the successor of J. Rowlandson. 
It is said that quarter was offered him by the Indians, but that he preferred to fight 
for his life and lost it. He was only thirty-three. 

1 The double date given by Sewall and Pike, February 22, I'?!, corresponds with 
March 4, 179S. l''^^ 

' Still standing in North Andover. 

3 Major Wade's son, of Medford, a guest and relative of the family. 



1697J 



TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK 



135 



and the rest, strange to say, after a short detention, set 
at liberty. Besides rifling Colonel Bradstreet's house, 
the marauders burned some of his neighbors' houses and 
barns, with their contents, but only two persons, besides 
those already reported, are known to have been killed 
by them. Mather relates that the Rev. Thomas Bar- 
nard, the minister of the place, narrowly escaped their 




BRADSTREET HOUSE, AT NORTH ANDOVER, MASS. 



fury; and Sewall adds that the pulpit cushions were 
taken away and burned. 

While making off toward Haverhill, the same party 
fell in with Jonathan Haynes and Samuel Ladd, of that 
town, driving their teams homeward, and killed both of 
them. A son of each was taken at the same time. 

Occasional outrages of this sort, continued during the 
spring months, served to signal the expiring efforts of 
the war, like the random shots fired after the main battle 



136 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

is over. Deprived by the peace of the means of carry- 
ing on the war, the hostile tribes quickly realized that 
since they had been abandoned by their friends, the only 
course left was to make terms with their enemies. Find- 
ing them in this temper, Major Converse and Captain 
Alden held a conference with some of the chief sachems 
at Penobscot, in October ; the Indians, as usual, throw- 
ing all the blame of their past acts upon the French. 
Treaty of There was no doubt, however, that they 

Casco. were now sincerely desirous of peace. A 

meeting was therefore arranged for this end, which took 
place at or near Mare Point in Casco Bay, in January, 
when articles of submission were signed by Moxus and 
many more chiefs, representing the different tribes. 

By this treaty the Indians freely acknowledged their 
past misdeeds, set forth in the strongest colors by the 
English, and once again pledged their worthless honor for 
the performance of the same old threadbare obligations. 
Next to the cessation of the long reign of arson, pillage, 
and murder, the rescue of English captives was the 
chief object to be attained. Some hundreds of these 
were scattered far and wide among their brutal captors. 
They were to be restored, but the inclemency of the sea- 
captives son prevented this merciful act from taking 

given up. effect at once. Many had perished misera- 

bly of ill treatment or starvation, but all who were able to 
bear the fatigues of the long march homeward, and who, 
themselves, wished to return to their friends, w^ere per- 
mitted to do so. Strange to say, not a few preferred to 
remain among the savages, thus furnishing a homely, 
but apt illustration of the ease with which so-called 
civilized beings relapse into barbarism. We may take 
comfort in the belief that not one of these renegades 



1697J TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK 137 

would have made a useful citizen, had he remained true 
to his color and teachings. 

Various estimates of the loss of life in this war are 
to be met with. But it is evident that none were care- 
fully compiled, as they run all the way from 500 to 700 
killed. The latter number is probably the more accurate. 
Asacumbuit alone claimed to have slain one hundred 
and fifty persons with his own hand. In Losses by 

view of the length of the war, the highest ***« w"'"- 

figure does not seem large, but when we reflect that the 
losses mostly fell upon the agricultural population, and 
in many cases virtually wiped out of existence entire 
towns or villages ; that hundreds of dwellings and barns 
were burned to ashes, with their contents ; and that prog- 
ress, as measured by pushing forward the frontier, was 
beaten back twenty years, the true nature of this con- 
flict stands out in strong relief. The weakness of the 
English plan seems to have been in the attempt to hold 
an untenable line, more as a point of honor than from 
the dictates of a sound policy. It has been seen that 
the effort severely taxed the entire resources of Massa- 
chusetts and New Hampshire, both in men and money. 

Though no estimate of the losses to the Indians is 
possible, it may be measured somewhat by its visible re- 
sults. Many of their best warriors had fallen in fights. 
As many more, perhaps, had died from the effects of 
disease or starvation, occasioned by the destruction of 
their winter supply of com, which put them to the most 
cruel privations. It was now become a matter of 
difficulty to raise fifty warriors, where it had been easy 
to raise a hundred and fifty. In some cases only frag- 
ments of tribes remained, and in others the remnants 
had joined their nearest neighbors for mutual protection. 



138 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1697 

The hard, uncompromisiDg fact, which stared this doomed 
people in the face, was that they could not afford even 
trifling losses, impossible to be repaired; and repair 
them they could not so long as they were being hunted 
like wild beasts. At the close of the war they held 
nothing that they could call their own within sixty miles 
of the sea-coast, between the Merrimac and Penobscot 
rivers. That, surely, was a visible sign of their impend- 
ing doom. 



QUEEN ANNE'S WAR 



XV 

THE NEW OUTLOOK 

1702-1703 

WAK broke out again between England and France 
in 1702.^ In Europe it was called the War of the 
Spanish Succession ; in the colonies, Queen Anne's War ; 
as that princess had succeeded to the throne of Eng- 
land, made vacant by the death of her great brother-in- 
law William III. 

Two dramatic incidents preceded the formal declara- 
tion of war. In taking leave of his grandson, a boy of 
seventeen, whom he was seating on the throne of Spain, 
in the teeth of Europe, Louis XIV. had made use of the 
picturesque and significant expression, "/^ n'y a plus 
de Pyrenees'' ^ 

This act gave birth to the formidable coalition meant 
to curb the ambition of the brilliant despot of Ver- 
sailles. 

The other event took place at the death-bed of the 
exiled James II. According to his biographer, Louis 
approached the bedside of the dying man, Death=bed of 
and after desiring those present to remain, James ii. 

as if to give greater solemnity to what he was about to 
do, he said, '' I am come, sir, to acquaint you, that 
whenever it shall please God to call your majesty out 

1 War was proclaimed at Westminster May 4, 1702. 

2 " There are no longer any Pyrenees." 



142 



THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1702-1703 



of this world, I will treat your son, the Prince of Wales, 
in the same manner I have treated you, and acknowl- 
edge him, as he then will be, King of England." ^ 

As an example of studied insolence this declaration 
is almost without a parallel in history. The insult 

stung Protestant 
England to the 
quick. In a few 
short months 
William followed 
James to the 
grave, but his 
spirit still sur- 
vived, the resort 
to arms was fully 
accepted, and war 
declared on May 
4, 1702. 

Willing or un- 
willing, the colo- 
nies of the two 
great belliger- 
ents were none 
the less to be 
dragged into the 
quarrel, though under conditions widely different from 
those existing in Europe. The coming ordeal was in- 
deed one to make men thoughtful, yet there are no 
signs of faltering. 

There were in all New England about 120,000 per- 
sons of all ages. Although New England had the 
most men, Canada invariably had the better leaders. 

1 James died at St. Germain, September 10, 1701, at the age of sixty-seven. 




QUEEN ANNE. 



1703-1703] THE NEW OUTLOOK 143 

Military men were chosen there to conduct military en- 
terprises. There were none such in New England. Bor- 
der warfare was the only school in which her rude yeo- 
manry had been trained up, and as soon as the exigency 
was over they returned to their farms or workshops. 
The Canadian yeomanry, on the contrary, Canada and New 
being mostly hunters, boatmen, or wood- England com- 
rangers, and always in the woods, were pared, 

about as well skilled in forest warfare as the savages 
with whom they fraternized ; so that disparity in num- 
bers was by no means the true measure of the ability of 
the combatants. 

There was, however, an enrolment of the colonial 
militia into regiments, troops, and companies. But 
with only an annual muster to bring them together 
their discipline stood small chance of being improved. 
The truth is that the spirit of the people was unalterably 
opposed to a permanent military establishment of any 
sort whatever. Their fathers, in their wisdom, had 
fixed the tradition that a standing army was a standing 
danger, and so the sons would have none of it. Hence 
the career of arms, with its twin incentives, thirst for 
erlory and hope of promotion, was as 

^ T 1 i. i. i 1 1 VL- nmtia system. 

good as shut to the ambitious young men 
of the day. Unlike the young Canadian nobility, they 
took the field from a stem sense of duty, not from 
choice, having it always in mind that they were soldiers 
only for the time being. Citizen soldiers are good for 
little until they have lost their identity as citizens in 
the soldier. Consequently, great enterprises had turned 
to great failures during the last war, not so much from 
faulty conceptions, as from the want of organization, 
discipline, command, and of that kind of confidence 



144 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1702-1703 

which comes with them, ^r mere bush fighting raw 
levies had indeed proved siifticient, but for such opera- 
tions as laying siege to Quebec, something more than a 
courageous rabble was needed. 

This enrolment of the fighting strength of the colony 
into troops and regiments, which, by the by, seldom 
took the field as such, did, hoAvever, facilitate the mus- 
tering of such bodies as were called out upon emer- 
gencies, when each regiment was required to furnish its 
quota, either by voluntary enlistment or by draft. 
Here we find the germ of that antiquated militia system 
which endured well into the present century. More 
curious still it is to note that the methods in force in 
our own time, with all their abuses, were in full opera- 
tion in what a later generation has been taught to look 
back upon as a model of civic virtue. There were those 
who slipped out of one colony into another to avoid 
military service or, worse still, the tax-gatherer. In 
order to put a stop to wholesale desertions from the 
frontier towns, a law had to be passed 
prohibiting all persons of sixteen years of 
age from leaving them. Yet fear of the law was less 
potent than fear of the scalping-knife. There were also 
bounties and bounty-jumpers ; and there was falsifica- 
tion of names and ages, as well as fraudulent raising of 
provision returns, muster-rolls, and the like. And, fi- 
nally, there was also the same eager buying up of sub- 
stitutes by those whose courage or patriotism failed 
them at the pinch. Such was the system and such were 
its defects. 

If the military arm was thus weak, the civil adminis- 
tration was powerless to strengthen it, because no soldier 
had ever been put at the head of the government. Al- 



1702-1703] 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 



145 



though captain-general by virtue of his commission, 
only here and there one in the long line of governors 
was possessed of more military knowledge than could 
be picked up on the annual training-field, civilian 

where the martial exercises were usually leaders. 

opened with a prayer. Not that men who pray will not 
fight, and fight 
well, but there is 
evidence that by 
this time the spirit 
that had prompted 
the fathers always 
to seek the Lord 
before unsheath- 
ing their swords, 
had grown some- 
what weaker with 
the sons. In Vau- 
dreuil, Dudley was 
going to be pitted 
against an adver- 
sary of experience 
in active warfare, 
and fare accord- 
ingly. And as 
events move on, it 

will be seen that the English were driven to adopt the 
tactics of their enemies. In diplomacy, however, the two 
distinguished adversaries were more evenly matched. 

In this war, as in the last, the colonies had for an 

adversary Louis XIV., surnamed the Great. If he had 

been as blind to the wants or perils of his transatlantic 

subjects as England was to hers, the contest would have 

10 




LOUIS XIV. 



146 



THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1702-1703 



been more equal. Such, lR)wever, was not the case. 
The whole situation on this side of the water was about 
Louis XIV. as well understood at Versailles as at Que- 

guides the War. -^q^ . g^ ^^^jj indeed that in most cases 

the movements of war-parties upon our frontiers were 
generally first ordered or sanctioned or suggested by 

Louis himself. 
Though it may 
seem strange that 
this monarch, with 
half Europe 
leagued against 
him, should thus 
find time to turn 
from great affairs 
to little, it is no 
less true. While 
he lived, Louis not 
only insisted upon 
ruling everything, 
but upon knowing 
everything. It 
was really there- 
fore with him 
that the English colonists were now measuring their 
strength. 

England's policy, briefly stated, like that of the savage 
toward his offspring, was to leave her colonies to shift 
for themselves. If they survived the ordeal, well and 
good ; if not, it would be because nature had not well 
fitted them for the battle of life. 

In the brief breathing time allowed from the ravages 
of war, the wheel of time had moved relentlessly on- 




GOVERNOR SIMON BRADSTREET. 



1702-1703] 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 



147 



ward. Many of the chief actors had disappeared from 
the stage. Frontenac was dead at seventy-seven. Brad- 
street, one of the last survivors among the first-comers, 
had died at the great age of ninety-four ; so had Lord 
Bellomont, after a brief rule of only two years ; and so 
had StOughton, who had borne the burden of govem- 




THE EARL OP BELLOMONT. 



ment since the death of Phips. Madockawando, the 
father-in-law of St. Castin, had also succumbed to the 
dread destroyer, with many more whose names once 
struck terror to the hearts of their enemies. In view of 
its probable murderous character, it would perhaps be 
too much to say that the war was popular in New Eng- 
land. But the people v/ere intensely loyal to the cause 



148 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1702-1708 

of Protestantism, of which William was the recognized 
champion, and intensely partisan, too. They resented, 
as warmly as all Protestant England did, the insult put 
upon the nation in challenging William's right to the 
throne. Canada was wholly Catholic. Those in authority 
there took their cue from their royal master in declaring 
William a usurper. So that there was no want of an- 
tagonisms to fan the old embers into a fiercer blaze 
than ever. 

The short administration of the Earl of Bellomont 
covered a season of recuperation from the exhaustion 
of war. He died in office on March 6, 1700. Stoughton, 
the lieutenant-governor, having died the next year, the 
government devolved for the first time upon the Council, 
a cumbrous body of twenty-eight persons, of whom a 
majority constituted the executive for the time being. 

Joseph Dudley succeeded Lord Bellomont as gover- 
nor. He came into office with a war on his hands, 
Avhich, for ten years, taxed all his resources 

Joseph Dudley. ' -, i c 

to the utmost, and the lact stands out m 
strong relief that his worst enemies, whom he took no 
great pains to conciliate, were forced to admire his 
abilities, much as they disliked him as a ruler and a 
man. Although the son of a Puritan of the sternest 
type, Dudley's own leanings were strongly toward ab- 
solutism. By the old Puritan party he was looked 
upon as the degenerate son of a noble sire ; but even 
they had the wisdom to see that the times had altered, 
since they made their own rulers, and were not indis- 
posed to give Dudley a trial, thinking him perhaps, on 
the whole, better than a stranger. But they never could 
or would forget his having taken office just after the 
vacating of the old charter. That wound still rankled. 



17()2-I70;j] 



THE NEW OUTLOOK 



149 



Dudley arrived at Boston, June 11, 1702. He was 
well received even by those members of the Council who 
had sent him to prison in the time of Sir Edmund An- 
dros. In the face of political changes such as few men 
have experienced (and in his limited sphere of action 
Dudley was a 
consummate pol- 
itician) the new 
governor could 
well afford to let 
bygones be by- 
gones. No doubt 
his late oppo- 
nents were more 
than pleased 
with the un- 
looked-for prof- 
fer of a general 
amnesty, and so 
for the present 
there was a truce 
to the old quar- 
rels. 

There was 
certainly need 
enough for united support from all parties. Dudley 
found his province assailed at once by war and pesti- 
lence. During the winter no less than three hundred 
inhabitants of Boston were carried off by the small-pox, 
a disease which had periodically scourged the larger 
towns since their first settlement, almost unopposed. 

Looking abroad, for the most part the Indians re- 
mained in the same situation in which the close of the 




GOVERNOR JOSEPH DUDLEY. 



150 THE BOllDEll WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1702-1703 

war had left them, their viiS^ges being equivalent to 
outposts guarding the main avenues to Canada, or 
covering their lines of supply or retreat. And they 
were situated just far enough from the English border 
to make it difficult to attack them by surprise. Some 
of the more wary among them, however, keenly realizing 
the dangers to which they were exposed in time of war, 
were easily persuaded by M. de Yaudreuil to with- 
draw themselves to Canada, ostensibly for their own 
protection, but really as a defence against the Iroquois. 
These seceding Abenakis were located at Becancour, 
a little river flowing into the St. Lawrence, midway be- 
tween Montreal and Quebec ; and at St. Francis, on the 
river of that name, flowing into Lake St. Peter. They 
were thus placed within supporting distance of each 
other, under the keen eye of Yaudreuil and the watch- 
ful care of the Jesuit missionaries!^ Still others had 
withdrawn from the Kennebec to Penobscot. 

Dudley fully realized how much the peace of New 
England depended upon holding the lately hostile tribes 
Council at Ai'm to their professions of friendship. If 

Casco. j^Y^Qj could be kept quiet the war would 

be shorn of its terrors. It was therefore all-important 
to know their present disposition, and to meet their 
grievances, if such they had, in a spirit of conciliation 
and just dealing. To this end he summoned them to a 
council, which accordingly met at Casco,^ June 20, 1703, 

1 The seignory of Becancour was granted in 1647 to Sieur de Becancour. The Abenaki 
village was on the east side of the river Becancour, at some distance from its mouth. 
The seignory of St. Francis was granted in 1678 to Sieur de Crevier. The Indian 
village lay on the east side of the river St. Francis, which communicates by a branch 
with Lake Memphremagog, and so opened a practical route to New England, often 
traversed by war-parties. 

2 This was New Casco fort, built at Falmouth in 1700 ; so called to distinguish it 
from Old Casco (Fort Loyal) de.=;troyed by the enemy in 1090. 



1702-1703] THE NEW OUTLOOK 151 

and was largely attended by delegates from the differ- 
ent tribes. Hither came the old, seasoned, war chiefs 
of the Penobscots, Norridgewocks, Androscoggins and 
Pennacooks, armed and painted for the ceremony, ac- 
companied by a numerous retinue of their wild fol- 
lowers. 

When the council opened Dudley saluted the grave 
sagamores present as his friends and brothers, and said 
that he was come to reconcile whatever differences had 
happened since the last treaty. After the usual pause, 
the Indian orator who spoke for the rest assured the 
governor that "as high as the sun Avas above the 
earth," so far were their thoughts from breaking the 
peace between them. In proof of sincerity they first 
presented him with a belt of wampum, and then invited 
him to go with them to the two heaps of stones, erected 
to commemorate a former treaty at this place, affection- 
ately called The Two Brothers.^ Still further to 
strengthen the bond between them, both parties added 
more stones to the piles before them. A little later, the 
noted chiefs Bomazeen and Captain Samuel came in to 
declare that they, too, were " as firm as the mountains," 
and should continue so "as long as the sun and moon 
endured." 

So far everything had gone smoothly. But some- 
thing now occurred which disturbed the white men not 
a little. The council was breaking up with the usual 
noisy demonstrations of joy. When it came the turn of 
each party to fire a salute, in ratification of the treaty, 
upon being asked to do so the English fired first, with- 
out hesitation. But when the Indians fired, it was no- 

1 This name has since been taken by the two little islands lying off the Falmouth 
shore^ 



152 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1702-1703 

ticed that tlieir gmis were loaded with ball.' Treach- 
ery seemed lurking in the air. 

A round of festivities succeeded the deliberations of 
the coimcil. The Indians danced, sang, and shouted to 
their hearts' content. Many presents were given them, 
which w^ere thankfully received ; and the assembly 
broke up with fair promise that the harassing w^arfare 
of former years would not be renewed. In this belief 
the scattered settlers along the seaboard prepared to 
stand their ground, all unconscious of the storm about 
to burst upon their devoted heads. 

1 Dudley ufterward wrote to Subercase, governor of Nova Scotia, laying bare the 
treachery of liis predecessor, Brouillan. Subercase had accused the provincial troops 
of committing a sacrilegious act in digging up the heart of Brouillan from the place 
where it was buried. Dudley responds in these terms: "About five years since I 
had gone to Casco Bay to make an agreement with the Indians of my government. 
There came to that place two Frenchmen of Port Royal, to whom M. de Brouillan had 
promised two hundred pistoles to kill me. These Frenchmen came to Casco Bay dis- 
guised as Indians, and were present when I was making my agreement, but their hearts 
failed them in what they had undertaken. Some time after, one of the two, being a 
prisoner, and brought here, acknowledged it to me. in my house, on his knees." 



XVI 

SIX TERRIBLE DAYS 

August, 1703 

While Dudley was congratulating himself upon hav- 
ing brought the Indian tribes so emphatically to com- 
mit themselves in favor of peace, Yaudreuil, governor of 
Canada, through his agents, the missionaries, was doing 
his utmost to prevail on them to renew the war. Even 
while the conference at Casco was in progress, it is as- 
serted that the Sokokis, of Pigwacket, w^ere only waiting 
for a French reinforcement to begin their march for the 
border.^ 

Under the late treaty^ the French claimed to the 
Kennebec. The English denied this claim in toto. It 
was no very difficult matter to bring the tribes living to 
the east of that river, who had suffered in the past from 
the encroachments of the English, into full and entire 
accord with the French upon this question. Boundary 

It was plain enough, even to the dullest question, 

perception, that, unless prevented, the English would 
move back into the disputed territory, from which they 
had so recently been driven, without loss of time. Al- 
ready there was talk of rebuilding Pemaquid. Vau- 

1 Pknhallow. 

^ The treaty of Rj'swick restored Acadia to France, without fixing its boundaries. 
The English still insisted that the St. Croix was the true dividing line, but in 1700 both 
parties agreed upon the St. George, the English having no eettlements beyond that 
river, while the French had. 



154 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1703 

clreuil thus had ample material Avitli which to work 
upon the fears or prejudices of the eastern tribes, and 
he hastened to improve it. 

As soon as hostilities had actually ceased many of the 
fugitive settlers had gone back to their deserted homes 
between Wells and Falmouth. If his plans should suc- 
ceed, Yaudreuil aimed at nothing short of making a clean 
sweep of all the settlements in Maine. If those in the 
west were destroyed, he argued that there would be less 
danger of the English renewing those in the east. So 
the work was to be thoroughly done, by making a com- 
bined attack on all the settlements at once. In this way 
one would be prevented from helping the other, the 
panic would become more widespread, and the con- 
quest probably be all the more easy. But first of all 
the Abenakis of Maine must be worked up to the proper 
pitch of fury against the English. 

A pretext was soon found. It chanced that while St. 
Castin was away from home, some lawless Englishmen 
had plundered his house. He being an Abenaki chief, 
the Penobscots instantly resented it as an insult offered 
to the whole tribe. The two missionaries. Bigot of Pe- 
nobscot, and Kale of Norridgewock, seized the oppor- 
tunity thus offered still further to inflame their wrath ; 
so that what ought to have been equitably adjusted, 
without provoking ill-blood, was wickedly used to 
plunge the nations into war again. This, at any rate, 
was the assigned cause. But the other fact that in 
Pretext for l^ss than eight weeks a general assault be- 

^"''* gan on all the settlements of Maine, de- 

notes more preparation than so trivial a provocation 
would seem to imply. Be that as it may, on August 
10th, several bands of French and Indians, clearly act- 



1703] SIX TERRIBLE DAYS 155 

ing in concert, and estimated at not less than five 
hundred in all, suddenly fell upon the reviving villages 
of Maine with fire and slaughter. 

The blow seems to have fallen first upon Wells,^ and 
thence have been taken up all along the shore as far as 
Falmouth. . Not one hamlet escaped. At Wells thirty- 
nine persons were either killed or carried away into 
captivity. 

There is a local tradition touching an adventure of 
one Stephen Harding, who kept the ferry at the Kenne- 




ANCIENT FERRY-WAT, KENNEBUNK RIVER, ME. 

bunk River, where all travel passed at that time. The 
story has probably lost nothing in being handed down 
through several generations, yet its main incidents are 
believed to be true. 

At this early day the only travelled ways closely 
hugged the seashore; taking advantage of the hard sand 
beaches, passing the intercepting streams by fords or 
ferries, and cutting across the gray, old, rock-ribbed 
headlands by strips of half -worked roads, practicable 

1 Wells then included what is now Kennebiink. News of the attack reached 
Boston on the 11th. This was followed on the next day by exaggerated accounts of 
the affair. "August 12, at night, news comes from Wells that they have buried 15 — 
dui-st not go to bury their uttermost (outermost). Lost, as they fear, 60." Sewall 
Papers. 



ir)6 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1703 

only for the two-wheeled caiW then in use, yet dignified 
by the sounding title of the King's Highways.^ 

Harding's log-house stood on a swell of ground en- 
closed between Gooch's beach, the main river, and a tidal 
creek making in from it tow^ard the west. From here 
the view is clear and open across the beach for a mile 
toward AYells, so that no one could approach the house 
that way unseen in the daytime, if the occupants were 
on the lookout. 

Tradition reports Harding to have been a man of un- 
common physical strength and courage — in fact, a veri- 
table giant. The Indians knew him Avell, and he knew 
them of old. 

One morning, on going out of the house, Harding 
saw quite a large body of some sort of people coming over 
the beach from the direction of Wells. He was at first 
undecided whether they were friends or foes, but their 
wary movements soon satisfied him that they must be 
Indians. They were, in fact, the raiders who had 
ravaged Wells the day before, returning with their 
prisoners and booty. 

It was now Harding's turn to be alarmed. Fortu- 
nately the redskins were still a good w^ay off ; but there 
Harding's was not a moment to lose. Hurrying 

escape. back to the house, Harding told his wife 

to take their little year-old infant, make haste with it 
across the creek, and hide herself at a certain oak-tree, 
until he should join her. The terrified woman snatched 
up the child, and ran off with it, as she was told ; while 
Harding, more bold than prudent, remained behind to 
protect his property, should his fears prove groundless. 

Meantime, the thought struck Harding that more 

1 In some localities in Maine these ancient roads may be traced to this day. 



1703] 



SIX TERRIBLE DAYS 



157 



Indians might be lurking about his premises. If so he 
would inevitably be caught in the toils. 

It turned out as he thought, for upon going into 
his blacksmith shop, and giving a loud whoop, four 
stout Indians started up from the ground where they 
had lain concealed, and made a rush for him. Hard- 
ing now thought only of making his own escape. His 
cornfield offered the only cover at hand, so into it he 




SCENE OP HARDING S EXPLOIT. 



plunged, making rapid strides for the creek. But while 
running at the top of his speed, w^ho should he see but 
his wife lying prostrate among the corn ? Overcome 
by terror, the poor woman had sunk down helpless, 
after going only a few rods from the house. 

Harding's extraordinar}^ strength was now put to 
the test. Taking his wife under one arm, and her babe 
under the other, he dashed on again for the creek, 
plunged in, waded through mud and water, to tlie oppo- 
site bank, and dived into the woods beyond, while his 



158 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1703 

baffled pursuers stood looking at him from the shore he 
had just left. 

Harding's faithful dog had followed close at his 
master's heels. The animal Avas killed for fear that his 
barking would betray the route the fugitives had taken. 
They then plunged deeper into the woods. All that 
night they lay hid. Late on the next day they reached 
Storer's garrison, at Wells, weary, footsore, and famish- 
ing. It is more than probable that the Indians wished 
to take Harding alive, or he would hardly have got off 
so easily. They showed great admiration for his prow- 
ess in this affair, often saying, when speaking of him, 
" Much man Stephen ; all same one Indian." 

After rifling Harding's house, pulling up his corn, 
and killing his hogs, the savages crossed the river to 
William Larrabee's, whose wife and three children were 
inhumanly butchered, while the husband and father 
was a horrified witness of the deed from a place where 
he had concealed himself. 

From here they moved two miles farther up the river 
to Philip Durell's house, at Kennebunk Landing. They 
found no one at home here but the women and children, 
Durell himself being absent. When he did get back, 
at nightfall, it was to a desolate home.^ 

Cape Porpoise, being inhabited by only a few fisher- 
men, was wholly laid waste, and, for the second time in 
its history, depopulated. Upon the ap- 
pearance of the enemy at AVinter Harbor ^ 
the inhabitants took refuge in Fort Mary. Here the 

J Bradbury, History of Keiinebunkport, further relates that the Indians carried 
off, at this time, Mrs. Durell. her two daughters, Susan and Rachel, and two sons, one 
of whom, Philip, was an infant. The prisoners were taken as fai- as Pigwacket (Frye- 
burg, Me.) when Mrs. Durell was allowed to go home with her infant. Both daughters 
married Frenchmen, and refused to return after the war. 

2 Though locally preserved, the name is now merged in that of Biddeford Pool. 



1703] 



SIX TERRIBLE DAYS 159 



attack was repulsed/ but that made on the stone fort^ at 
the falls, above, was more successful, thirty-five persons 
being killed or taken there. At Scarborough, the gar- 
rison bravely held out until assistance reached them. 
At Spurwink,^ a neighborhood of Cape Elizabeth, in- 
habited almost exclusively by families of the name of 
Jordan, no less than twenty-two persons of that name 
were killed or taken. At Purpooduck, another little 
fishing hamlet of Cape Elizabeth, finding no men at 
home, the marauders murdered twenty-five and carried 
off eight of the women and children. 

It only remained to dispose of the fort and settle- 
ment at Falmouth. The veteran Major John March 
was then in command of the fort. Stratagem was first 
resorted to. While the main body of assailants kept 
out of sight, three chiefs boldly advanced to the gate 
with a flag of truce. At first, March paid no atten- 
tion to the flag, but finally went out to meet it, taking 
with him two others, all three being unarmed. His men 
were, however, warned to be watchful against treach- 
ery. Only a fcAv words had been exchanged, when the 
Indians drew their hatchets from under their blank- 
ets, and fell with fury upon March and his compan- 
ions. March being a man of great physical strength, suc- 
ceeded in wresting a hatchet from one of his assailants, 
with which he kept them off until a file of men came to 
his rescue. Luckily he escaped with a few slight wounds. 

1 Williamson, History of Maine, following Penhallow, errs in saying that this gar- 
rison was taken. It was then commanded by Captain Turfrey, who writes to Governor 
Dudley under date of August, 17U.3, to the above efEect. See Masmchiisetts Archives. 
Under date of August 16th, Dudley wrote to Winthrop, saying that the forts nt Saco, 
Blackpoint, and Casco were assaulted, but were yet safe. Winthrop Papers. 

3 This fort stood on the river bank, just below the falls, in what is now the Laconia 
Company's premises. 

s The attack here was known in Boston on the 12th. 



160 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1703 

His less fortunate compauious, Pliippeny and Kent, 
both old men, fell under the blows of the other savages. 
One of his guards was also shot down from an ambush 
near by, probably placed wdth the view of rushing into 
the fort if the attempt to surprise March's party had 
succeeded. 

Having failed to gain the fort by treachery, the sav- 
ages next fell upon the scattered cabins outside ; which 
were soon blazing on all sides. This done they re- 
turned to attack the fort. For six days the weak gar- 
rison defended itself unflinchingly. During this time 
the besiegers were joined by the confederate bands, 
Falmouth holds who had been destroying all before them 
*^"*- at the west. Beaubassin, the French 

leader, now pressed the siege wdth greater vigor and 
skill. Covered by the bank on which the fort stood, 
the savages set to work undermining it on the water side. 
For two days and nights they steadily wormed their 
way under the bank toward the palisade without any 
hindrance from the garrison, and were in a fair way to 
have carried the fort by assault, when the arrival of the 
provincial galley compelled them to give over their pur- 
pose in a hurry, as that vessel's guns raked their 
Avorking part}*. On the following night they decamped. 
Two hundred canoes were destroyed, and an English 
shallop retaken by the relieving galley.^ 

One hundred and thirty persons were either killed or 
taken during this bloody onset. At night the sky was 
lit up by the fires kindled by the Indians. Maine had 
nearly received her death-blow. Throughout her en- 

1 John March was a native of Newbury, Mass. He was imniccliately made a lieu- 
tenant-colonel for his grallaiitry in this affair, the Qpneral Court afterward voting him 
£50, in consideration of his brave defence and the wounds he received. 



1703J SIX TERRIBLE DAYS 161 

tire border nothing was left standing except a few iso- 
lated garrisons, and it was a question if even these 
could hold out much longer. The deception had been 
so complete, the onset so sudden, that organized resist- 
ance was out of the question. The English, heedless 
of the signs of the gathering storm, had been lulled 
into a state of false security, and the awakening was 
terrible indeed. 



11 



XVII 

THE WAR GROWS IN SAVAGERY 

1703 

The preceding chapter closed the record of six ter- 
rible days which had left a track of blood for fifty miles 
along the stricken seaboard of Maine. How fared it 
with the exposed frontiers of New Hampshire after this 
new outbreak ? We have scarcely patience to continue 
the sad recital of indiscriminate slaughter, which cast 
the silence of death over so many desolated hearthstones 
in this ancient province. 

On August 17th a war party, led by Captain Tom, 
set upon Hampton Village. Five of the inhabitants 
were killed, one of whom, a widow Mussey, was a 
noted Friend. They also plundered two houses here 
before a general alarm brought the people together in 
sufficient numbers to drive the assailants away. 

Fear and dismay now spread on the wings of the 
wind. It could never be known where the subtle 
enemy would strike next ; hence the widespread alarm 
which at once turned every man's thoughts to his own 
means of defence. Little enough could be done where 
steps for the enemy possessed every advantage — 

defence. particularly that of choosing his own time 

and place of attack. Still, the usual measures were re- 
sorted to. The people were ordered into tlie garrisons. 
Only the most necessary labor was performed, and that 



1703] 



THE WAR GROWS IN SAVAGERY 



163 



went on under the protection of an armed guard. The 
women and children were ordered to be sent out of the 
Maine garrisons to a place of safety. Wadleigh's and 
Somerby's troops were quartered at Wells to prevent 
the discouraged inhabitants from deserting the place in 




ANCIENT SEAT OF THE PI6WACKETTS, FRYBBURG, ME. 



a body ; while a foot company of a hundred men was 
ordered to man the remaining garrisons there, the horse 
being designed to keep the roads well scouted and pa- 
trolled. 

But for these prompt and efficient measures it is 
doubtful where the panic would have ended. 

Dudley had thus met the outbreak firmly. In Au- 



164 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1703 

gust lie was making up a marching force of five hun- 
dred men, soon increased to nine hundred, and by 
September to eleven hundred, half of whom, however, 
were quartered in garrisons, leaving his disposable 
force still too small for emergencies. He therefore 
turned to his neighbors for help, though it must be 
admitted with no very marked success. Connecticut, 
indeed, sent a troop into Hampshire County, but 
Khode Island held aloof. 

It was well understood that the enemy after striking 
their blows would retreat into their own fastnesses, and 
Dudley had determined to follow them there. 

In October, Colonel March marched at the head of 
three hundred and sixty men for Pigwacket. Long 
disuse had so obliterated the old trails that the guides 
became bewildered and could not find their way, com- 
pelling March to return empty - handed. Nothing 
daunted, Dudley immediately fitted out a second ex- 
pedition. 

All was to no purpose. Long before these forces 
could be gathered together the enemy had fled beyond 
reach, and from safe coverts his scouts were no doubt 
watching the futile efforts of the pursuers as they floun- 
dered on through the wooded defiles of the great north- 
ern wilderness, where range rises upon range until the 
great White Hills break upon the sight in all their 
majesty. 

Worse still, while these forces were out the savages, 
like so many wasps, brushed away for the moment, 
began their depredations in Maine again. At Black 
Point, Captain Hunnewell and nineteen more belonging 
to the garrison there, were waylaid as they were going 
out to work in the neighboring meadows, and all but 



1703J THE WAR GROWS IN SAVAGERY 165 

one man either killed or taken. ^ Tins bloody affair took 
place on October 6th. Emboldened by their success, by 
which the force there was greatly weak- Black Point 
ened, the savages next assaulted the gar- harried, 

rison itself. Eight men under Lieutenant Wyatt, with 
the help of two vessels then lying in the harbor, held 
out until they were able to make good their retreat on 
board the vessels, when the triumphant enemy quickly 
set the fort on fire ; and so that link in Dudley's chain 
of defence was broken apart. 

After performing this exploit the Indians renewed 
their outrages in and about York and Berwick, seem- 
ingly intent upon destroying every white settlement in 
Maine. At York the wife and five children of Arthur 
Bragdon were slain, and Mrs. Hannah Parsons and her 
daughter carried into captivity. 

It being worse than useless to play at hide and seek 
with these vigilant foemen, who first showed themselves 
in one place and then in another, far distant, the au- 
thorities persevered in the plan of hunting them down 
in their own villages. Usually, it was next to impos- 
sible for white men to approach them undiscovered, 
and after long and frightful marches a few deserted 
wigwams would be all that the disappointed rangers 
could find. This autumn, however, Colonel March ^vas 
more fortunate. During a second march to Pigwacket 
his men killed six Indians, and took six more. That he 
should have travelled so far to effect so little, or that 
so trifling a result should be hailed as a great success, 
is a telling commentary upon the peculiar character of 
Indian warfare. Nothing more discouraging or more 

1 The spot where this affair occurred is on Prout's Neck, in Scarborough, and has 
ever since been known as Massacre Pond. 



166 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1703 

exasperating can well be imagined, yet there was no 
help for it. 

This success induced the Massachusetts government 

to offer a bounty of twenty ^ pounds for every Indian 

scalp, taken by volunteer ranffin<2f parties. 

Scalp bounty. ,, ^V- • -, .. n^ . .l 

thus bringing into the conflict the new, 
and to this later generation repugnant, incentive of 
private gain. This was treating Indians and wolves 
alike. It was even more ; for thus to authorize the 
forming of scalping parties was to put those engaging 
in them on a level with the savages themselves. 
Yet public feeling had reached a point when no more 
was thought of killing an Indian than a wolf. Pen- 
hallow, who is by no means a bloody-minded writer, 
says that this bounty prompted some and animated 
others to "a noble emulation." The Eev. Solomon 
Stoddard, minister of Northami)ton, venerated for his 
virtues, who lived in the midst of hostile alarms, declared 
that the Indians should be looked upon only as " thieves 
and murderers," and he proposed hunting them down 
with dogs " the same as we do bears," as the best and 
only way of tracking them to their dens.^ He says, 
what is quite true, that the same thing had been done 
with success in Virginia, and goes on to quiet any 
qualms that might arise on the score of inhumanit}^ 
by the plea of an inexorable necessity. There is no 
doubt whatever that he spoke the general opinion. At 
that very moment his own flock were anxiously discuss- 
ing the chances of having the Indians come down upon 
them without a moment's warning. Then again the 

1 Hutchinson and others say forty, but the Act of September 7, 1703, now before 
me, says twenty. 

2 Letter to Govornor Dudley, October 22, 170;i Dr. Dwiprht siiys he was held " in 
a reverence which will scai-cely be rendered to any other man." 



1703] THE WAR GROWS IN SAVAGERY 167 

atrocities of tlie last war were now freslily recalled with 
fear and trembling ; and where hardly one family could 
be found, along a Avide extent of border, not mourning 
the loss of a relative or a friend, the morahty of any ef- 
fectual method of retaliation was not likely to be called 
in question. 

It resulted that no less than seven companies of 
rangers were engaged in scouring the woods for scalps 
during the \vinter, mider the bounty act — a stroke of 
policy relieving the authorities of the expense of main- 
taining an equal force of enlisted men. In their 
marches these rangers made use of snowshoes, as the 
Canada Indians had done in their de- snowshoe 

scents, for which reason they were styled *"*"• 

snowshoe men. Thus equipped, they were able to 
reach the farthest haunts of the savages in the depth of 
winter, without more fatigue than the same march 
would have caused them in summer. 

One company only succeeded in finding any Indians. 
This was the one commanded by Colonel William 
Tyng, of Dunstable, who went to the headquarters of 
" Old Harry," so-called, at Lake Winnipesaukee, where 
five Indians, including "Old Harry" himself, were 
slain.^ 

All could not prevent the daring enemy from molest- 
ing the settlers when and how they jDleased, and Indian 
cunning was often more than a match for English wit. 
Thus, on December 20th, three out of five Saco men, 
who were bringing home wood, were found slain. 
Seven more, who were also out of the garrisons, luckily 



1 Besides the bounty, the heirs of the actors in this affair were subsequently 
granted a tract of land at first called "Harry's" Town, then Tyngstown, then Derry- 
field, and lastly Manchester, N. H. 



168 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1708 

made their escape to Wells. Shortly after four men be- 
longing to Captain Gallop's sloop Avere killed at Casco 
Bay, after landing from their boat.^ AVithin a week, a 
Berwick as- most desperate attempt was made to de- 
*^''®'*- stroy Berwick,' the border town of Maine. 

It was on the morning of January 28th, when the 
ground was covered with snoAv, that a war-party, small 
in numbers but great in daring, fell suddenl}^ upon 
Neale's garrison. Fortunately the sentinel discovered 
their approach in season to give the alarm, but a young 
girl, and a young man who happened to be at some dis- 
tance off, had to run for their lives. The girl was 
quickly overtaken and knocked down with the blow of 
a tomahawk, but the lad still kept on and had almost 
reached the garrison when his pursuers, seeing him 
likely to escape them, fired at and shot him down. Be- 
lieving him dead, they kept on toward the garrison, 
and were come close up to it when a well aimed shot 
from the flanker laid the leader dead on the ground. 
While his comrades were busy trjdng to drag the body 
away, the young man came to himself again, and got 
safely into the garrison. The assailants then fell uj^on 
Smith's garrison, but the inmates there being ready to 
receive them, they were soon beaten off and one or two 
of their number wounded. Meantime, the firing had 
aroused the people at Brown's garrison. Captain 
Brown, with about a dozen good men, made all the 

Captain Brown's Speed he COuld to the relief of llis neigh- 
bravery, bors. He came upon the Indians as they 
were engaged in binding up the plunder they had found 
in some out-houses, bravely ran upon them and put 

1 Sewaix's Diary. 

2 Often called by its Indian name of Newichewannock in the accounts of the 



1703] THE WAR GROWS IN SAVAGERY 169 

them to flight. Brown's party fired briskly at the fugi- 
tives as they ran off through the snow, wounding several, 
as afterward appeared by the bloody tracks in the snow, 
and making them leave all their plunder behind, besides 
some of their own hatchets and blankets. The want of 
snow-shoes prevented the English from pursuing until 
the next day. In this raid the savages burned two 
houses and killed about seventy cattle, besides a good 
many sheep. ^ 

A little later in the season, on February 8th, a small 
party of the enemy made a more successful descent 
ujDon Joseph Bradley's garrison, situated in the north- 
erly part of Haverhill. Here the inmates had gone about 
their usual employments, so thoughtless of danger that 
the gates of the garrison were left standing wide open. 
Bradley's wife, Hannah, who had been made a prisoner 
at the same time as Mrs. Dustan, was busy Mrs. Bradley 
stirring a kettle of boiling soap, over the taken. 

fire, while Jonathan Johnson, a soldier, was loitering 
about the house, when a small party of savages, rushed 
in upon them, tomahawk in hand. Mrs. Bradley in- 
stantly flung a ladlef ul of boiling soap into the face of 
the foremost savage, putting him hors de combat, but 
his companions seized her, killed Johnson on the spot, 
and hurried the rest of the inmates off into the woods 
before an alarm could spread to the village. 

Thus this heroic woman became for the second time 
a captive. She was now obliged to travel on foot in 
the deep snow, carrying a burden that would have been 
heavy for a strong man to bear, with no other food for 
days together except some tough scraps of dried skins 

1 Captain John March's letter to Governor Dudley, dated the day after the attack ; 
and probably the same affair mentioned by Penhallow, who makes the Indians lose nine 
killed, though March knew of but one. 



170 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [170R 

or a few ground nuts, or the bark of trees, wild onions 
and lily roots — in fact, the proper sustenance of wild 
beasts. To heighten her misery, a child was born to 
her during the long and weary march to Canada. 
With a mother's devotion, Mrs. Bradley sought to save 
its life at all risks, but this was next to impossible in 
the face of such hardships as her condition imposed. 
Her captors seemed to take a fiendish delight in tor- 
turing the hapless little waif of the wilderness, and at 
length put it to death by throwing hot embers into its 
mouth to stop its crying.^ 

During this winter Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
shire together had 890 men in service. New Hampshire 
turning out every fourth man fit for military duty. The 
exigencies of the times called for the most arduous 
labors on the part of the civil authorities, whose ses- 
sions often reached far into the night. Communication 
was painfully slow. What can now be done in a few 
minutes then required as many hours, days even. The 
startling words " Haste ! post-haste ! " affixed to the 
cover of an important despatch, shows, at most, a rider 
galloping up hill and down at the top of his speed. 
Eelays could not always be arranged for in advance. 
There were no bridges over the great rivers. A drowsy 
ferryman, knocked up in the middle of the night, would 
not be apt to hurry himself overmuch. Arrived at his 
destination, his despatch delivered, the courier would 
snatch a few hours' sleep, while the orders were being 
got ready for his return. This was the day of alarm 
guns, beacons and bonfires. Yet death moved as swiftly 
then as now. 

1 Mrs. Bradley was sold to the French, and redeemed by her husband in the spring 
of 1705. 



1703] THE WAR GROWS IN SAVAGERY 171 

Late in January, as the council was breaking up at 
Boston, Colonel Schuyler walked into the chamber, ac- 
companied by a young man of soldierly port, known to 
a few there as Colonel Samuel Vetch. Few thought of 
him as destined to play so conspicuous a 

f 4- 1 i.1 Samuel Vetch. 

part m the near luture as subsequently 
turned out to be the case. Yet Yetch was no less des- 
tined to make his mark in these unquiet times, because 
they were exactly suited to his genius and his ambition. 
And in the years to come Vetch was sure to appear in 
every important crisis. 

Vetch is first heard of as one of the survivors of the 
memorable Darien colony of 1688-89, he being then a 
young Scotch captain attached to that ill-fated and ill- 
conceived expedition. From Darien Vetch came to 
New York, where his energetic character and natural 
abilities soon won for him friends and social position, 
as is evinced by his marrying into the Livingston 
family soon after.^ Never very scrupulous, he seems 
easily to have fallen into the loose notions, too preva- 
lent among a certain class of merchants of that day, for 
we presently find him charged with carrying on an il- 
licit trade with Canada. He is next heard of in Boston, 
seeking employment in the wars. 

,_ 1 He married the daughter of Robert Livingston. 



XVIII 

THE SACKING OF DEERFIELD 

February 28, 1704 

Having struck a benumbing blow at the sea-coast set- 
tlements of Maine, and thrown all that frontier into a 
state of unspeakable terror and confusion, and while 
the colonial forces, hurried to that quarter, were vainly 
scouring the woods in pursuit of the insolent raiders, 
the enemy was getting ready to repeat the blow at a 
point so remote that little preparation had been made 
to receive it. 

The village of Deerfield, the frontier settlement of 
the Connecticut Valley, had been singled out for swift 
destruction. ' 

As the outpost covering all of the settlements lower 
down the valley, it was important to hold it at all 
hazards, since their safety demanded that the enemy 
should be met and checked at the threshold. 

Moreover, as this group of thriving settlements was 
practically isolated from the sea-coast, but within sup- 
porting distance of the river towns of Connecticut 
colony, Dudley saw that help should come from there in 
case of need. Nothing, in short, could be plainer. Be- 
Connecticut sidcs, tlicsc half dozeu towns which were 
Valley. h^q object of Dudley's warm solicitude, 

actually covered Connecticut from invasion. This also 
Avas undeniable. Dudley pressed these facts home upon 



1704] THE SACKING OF DEERFIELD 173 

Governor Wintlirop ^ with considerable warmth, until 
a sort of tacit understanding was reached that Connec- 
ticut should aid in defending that part of the valley in 
question, upon the appearance of danger.^ 

Dudley, who had so many irons in the fire, was com- 
pelled to be satisfied with these half measures, simply 
because he could do no better. He knew — everybody 
knew — that to repel an Indian attack forces must be 
on the spot, not at a distance. The moral effect, how- 
ever, was good. Including the promised aid, there 
were in the four towns of Northampton, Fighting 

Hadley, Hatfield, and Deerfield about five strength, 

hundred fighting men. By adding Springfield, the 
whole valley probably could muster at least six hundred 
and fifty men.^ But not more than half of these could 
be put in the field without leaving the towns to which 
they belonged unguarded, and that was not to be 
thought of. 

The physical defences were of the rudest kind. 

Some years before, all or most of the houses in Deer- 
field had been enclosed by a stout timber stockade ; but 
with the growth of the place, both old and oeerfieid 

new settlers w^ere forced to build outside, alarmed, 

where their farms lay.'* Inside and out, there were 
forty houses, or, as some say, forty-one. Warned by the 
kidnapping of two persons belonging there that Indians 

1 Usually called Fitz-John, the prefix being used to distinguibh him from his father 
and grandfather, John Winthtop. 

2 The correspondence between the two governors on this head is in the Winthrop 
Papers. 

3 AccOKDiNG to a report made by Colonel Samuel Partridge, who had military 
charge over the valley settlements, Hatfield had 100 men of its own, Hadley the same 
number, Northampton 150, and Derrfield 25 just after the raid. Springfield is omitted 
from the list. Adding the sixty from Connecticut, find allowing Deerfield only the 
same number as Hatfield, the six towns could muster not less than 650 fighting men. 

* Lbtter of Rev. John Williams to Governor Dudley. Massachusetta Archives, 



174 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

were lurking near them, ^are that their village was 
greatly exposed to attack, the alarmed settlers had now 
taken refuge inside the stockade, where they were over- 
crowded, restless, discontented, and as time wore on 
without anything further occurring to excite their fears, 
too much disposed to regard the whole affair as a false 
alarm. 

Most of the old stockade having rotted away, it was 
dangerous to let it remain in that condition, and also 
dangerous to go into the woods after the timber to re- 
new it. In fact, the imperilled settlers hardly knew 
which way to turn. They were afraid to remain, yet 
forbidden to remove. Many were on the point of leav- 
ing, probably some did leave, but as their fears abated, 
pride or a careful eye to their own, kept them mostly 
steady at the post of duty. This was the situation in 
the autumn of 1703. 

Meantime, Colonel Schuyler of Albany had learned 
from some friendly Mohawks, who were returning from 
a visit to their Canada relations, that an attack on Deer- 
field was actually in preparation. Schuyler lost no time 
in notifying Governor Dudley. In the valley the news 
caused a panic. All occupations save those of watching 
and scouting were laid aside. The Connecticut horse 
came up at a gallop. But as time wore on and no enemy 
appeared, the panic subsided. Like the old cry of 
" wolf ! " it failed, at last, to arouse even a languid in- 
terest. So the autumn passed away and the long winter 
set in. 

It was in the depth of winter, and the snow lay deep 
along the peaceful valley, and high up the rugged 
mountain sides. The river, now solidly frozen over, 
formed an ice-bridge from bank to bank. The near- 



1704] THE SACKING OF DEERFIELD 175 

est village lay some miles below. There was little 
for the husbandman to do, except to watch the slow 
lengthening of the days, as the morning sun climbed 
the eastern hills, or note his brilliant setting behind 
the darkening mountains on the west. So he woke, 
and dozed and slept again without care and without 
fear. 

But while these settlers were thus resting in the most 
profound security, all unknown to them the Governor of 
Canada was launching one of his murder- Rouviiie's war= 
ous expeditions against them. The his- party. 

torian, Charlevoix, says it consisted of two hundred and 
fifty men, commanded by Hertel de Kouville ; other 
writers place the numbers much higher. It matters 
little ; there were enough and more than enough for 
the terrible work cut out for them here. Perhaps the 
Jesuit historian forgot to include the Indians who 
joined De Rouville later. 

It was a frightful march to look forward to ; though in 
some respects, perhaps not so difficult as if made at a 
different season of the year, the party being equipped 
with snow-shoes, on which they could move with ease and 
rapidity over the frozen crust. Streams could be passed 
on the ice ; swamps were no longer to be avoided ; rough 
or broken ground offered no hindrance. Yet was the 
march long and painful. At each halting-place, sheltered 
only from the cutting blasts by burying themselves in 
the depths of the forest, these hardy rangers would 
scrape out shallow burrows in the snow, in which they 
lay huddled together around a few fagots, like so many 
shaggy dogs, until roused to begin the march again. 
And like dogs they would have only to shake themselves 
to be ready. The bearded Canadian and the painted 



176 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

savage shared this wretch^ bivouac together, spurred 
on by the thirst for booty and slaughter. 

This winter of 1703-4 was one of unusual severity. 
The cold was intense. Indeed, the elements themselves 
seem to have conspired against this lonely outpost 
among the mountains. Cold had bridged the streams ; 
had smoothed the way over the deep snows, which in 
falling had so drifted up against the stockade as to make 
scaling it in one or more places from the outside an 
easy matter. Yet, instead of redoubling their vigilance, 
the heedless settlers seem to have thought the severity 
of the weather their greatest safeguard. 

One man only could not shake off the feeling of im- 
pending danger. This was John Williams, minister of 
Rev. John Deerfield, a man of much force of character, 

Williams. learning and piety. So strongly had the 

presentiment of evil taken possession of him, that he 
preached it in his sermons. Finding this time thrown 
away, he applied for and obtained a reinforcement of 
twenty soldiers just four days before the murderous as- 
sault, about to be related, took place. Williams was now 
undoubtedly easier in his mind, thinking that a more 
strict watch would be kept. There were wooden watch- 
towers, called flankers, set up along the stockade, in 
which the sentinels took up their posts at nightfall, re- 
maining till daybreak. The night of Monday, Febru- 
ary 28th, came. 

At the hour when the mothers of Deerfield were 
hushing their little ones to sleep, little dreaming it 
was to be that sleep from which there is no waking, 
De Rouville's cut-throats were going into bivouac, 
only two miles from the village. Not daring to light 
fires, they shivered through the long hours as best they 



1704] THE SACKING OF DEERPIELD 177 

could, while warmth and comfort reigned in the happy 
homes so soon to be made desolate. 

Finding all quiet, shortly after midnight De Rou- 
ville aroused his men for the assault. 

Like shadows they stole out of the woods, where 
they had lain huddled together for warmth. As the 
crust had grown hard enough to bear a man's weight, 
snow-shoes were left behind. Great caution was taken 
in approaching the stockade. There were frequent 
halts to listen. It was needless. The faithless guards 
had left their posts, and the sleeping village lay wholly 
at the mercy of the invaders. 

It was about two hours before day when Eouville's 
vanguard approached the stockade, unseen and unchal- 
lenged. Quick to act, the foremost assailants lightly 
mounted over the snowdrifts, let themselves drop down 
on the inside, and ran to unbar the gate to their com- 
panions, who rushed into the stockade, 

^ . Savage onset. 

screeching and yelling like so many fiends 
incarnate. They then scattered themselves right and 
left, so as to let none escape, and the work of slaughter 
began. 

The pen is powerless to portray the fright and bewil- 
derment of that moment. To the suddenly awakened 
inhabitants it must have seemed like the dawning of 
the Judgment Day. 

The experience of one was the experience of all, and 
Mr. Williams has told his own in a most graphic way.^ 
His house was one of the very first to be attacked. 
Leaping out of bed in his shirt, WilHams ran for the 
door, just as the Indians had forced their way in. Two 

J In The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion, of which many editions have been 
printed. 



178 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1704 

soldiers lodged with him. ^Shouting to them to get 
up, Williams darted back to his bedside for his pistol, 
Williams Snatched it up, levelled it at the foremost 

taken. Indian as he was entering the room, and 

pulled the trigger. Luckily for Williams it missed fire, 
or his life, probably, would have paid the forfeit on the 
instant. He was instantly seized, disarmed and bound, 
and kept standing for near an hour in the cold, without 
a rag of clothes on except his shirt. Meantime, two 
of his young children, with his negro woman, were 
dragged to the door and despatched ; while Mrs. Will- 
iams, brutally turned out of a sick bed, with five more 
of her children, was reserved to share her husband's 
captivity. The house was then ransacked from top to 
bottom. 

While the Indians w^ere thus employed, John Stod- 
dard, one of the two soldiers who lodged with Williams 
that night, was aroused by the uproar. Only one av- 
enue of escape was open to him, and of that he hastened 
to avail himself. It was the work of a moment to jump 
out of bed, throw up the window, leap to the ground, 
and make for the river, over the snow, all undressed 
and in his bare feet.. The snow was three feet deep, 
and the nearest settlement several miles away. At the 
Stoddard's moment of making his hasty exit he had 

escape. -(jj^g presence of mind to snatch up his 

cloak. This was quickly torn into strips and wrapped 
around his benumbed feet, sandal-wise. In this wretch- 
ed plight he continued his flight to Hatfield, where he 
arrived more dead than alive, to give an account of the 
bloody Avork going on above. 

Ensign John Sheldon's house stood near the north- 
west angle of the stockade. It was well for him that 



1704] 



THE SACKING OF DEERFIELD 



179 



he was not at home. Mrs. Sheldon was startled from a 
sound sleep by the din of blows, raining down against 
her door. The poor woman could only sit up in bed 
and listen in an agony of terror and suspense. The 
door, being barred, re- 
sisted every effort made 
to force it. Failing in 
this, the assailants then 

set to work Sheldon's house 
chopping a pillaged. 

hole with their axes, 
and when they had suc- 
ceeded in doing so, a 
savage put his eye to it 
and peered in. Someone 
was seen stirring in the 
dim light within. In- 
stantly a musket was 
thrust in and fired. ^ The 
fatal bullet struck poor 
Mrs. Sheldon, as she 
was in the act of ris- 
ing from her bed, and 

she fell back UDOn it a door op sheldon house, with marks op 

^ AXES. 

corpse. 

Meantime, her son John and his wife Hannah, who 
slept upstairs, and were also awakened by the tumult, 
sought to escape by jumping out of the window. The 
snow broke the force of the fall somewhat. Young 
Sheldon quickly scrambled to his feet unhurt, and made 
for the woods, which he fortunately gained, and by 




1 The house was torn down in 1848, but the door is still preserved in the museum at 
Deerfield. 



180 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

keej)ing well under cover succeeded in reaching the vil- 
lage below, spreading the alarm as he went. His wife, 
less fortunate, sprained her ankle in the fall, and being 
thus disabled, the marauders soon laid hands upon her. 

This house was one of two left standing inside the 
stockade, besides the meeting-house. All the rest 
were set on fire, to burn along with the ghastly evi- 
dences of the morning's work. Death, in its most ter- 
rible form, thus overtook many who, to escape the 
tomahawk, had hid themselves in their cellars, only to 
be stifled beneath the ruins of their burning dwellings. 
When all was over, forty-seven of the unresisting in- 
habitants lay dead in or around their own homes. A 
hundred and twelve more, half dead with cold and 
fright, were crowded into the Sheldon house, spared for 
the time being for their reception.^ 

The only resistance that the marauders seem to have 
met with came from the house of Benoni Stebbins, just 
mentioned, in which seven brave men and a few cour- 
ageous women successfully defended themselves during 
all the time that the carnage raged fiercest around them. 
Mr. Williams, himself an eye-witness of the determined 
Benoni efforts to Capture this house, saw the same 

stebbins. Indian whom he had failed to shoot short- 

ly before, shot dead from it. Although the gallant 
Stebbins had fallen, and two of his brave companions 
were badly wounded, in spite of coaxing, promises, or 
threats, to all of which the heroic defenders turned a 
deaf ear, this one house continued to stand firm as a 
rock in the midst of the storm of fire and blood surging 



1 Colonel Whiting puts the loss at 49 killed, and nearly 100 taken. Letter to Gov- 
ernor Winthrop. Secretary Addington to Winthrop says 57 killed to 90 captives.^ 
Winthrop Papers. 



1704] 



THE SACKING OF DEERFIELD 



181 



round it long after the enemy were masters of the rest 
of the village. 

It was somewhere about eight o'clock ^ when the 
enemy's main body moved off toward their last camp, 
guarding their long train of captives, and loaded down 




ENSIGN SHELDON'S HOUSE, DEERFIELD, MASS. 

with booty. After passing the river a halt was made to 
recover their packs, as well as to prepare the prisoners 
for the long march before them, by making them take off 
their own shoes and put on Indian mocassins brought 
for the purpose. Not all the marauders, however, had 

J Accounts vary ; some make it earlier, some later. 



182 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1704 

marclied off with their elated companions. A certain 
number of stragglers lagged behind, looking for plun- 
der among the smoking ruins. Rouville dared not 
delay his retreat longer, well knowing that the country 
below would soon be up in arms. In fact, the glare of 
the burning buildings had been seen far down the 
snow-bound valley, spreading its tale of blood before 
it in the heavens, and calling every able-bodied man to 
the rescue. Among others some sixty mounted men 
from Hatfield were early on the road, but the snow was 
deep and the pace slow. 

But the first to reach the ground were some scattered 
settlers, or fugitives, Avho rallied at the stockade of Jon- 
athan Wells, situated at the lower end of the village, 
until some thirty or more eager and determined men 
had collected there, ready for action, when, under the 
lead of Wells, they charged on into the stockade, driv- 
ing out the enemy's stragglers and rescuing 
the living inmates of the Stebbins house, 
which was still hard beset. Indeed, they were reduced 
to the very last extremity when this timely aid appeared 
on the scene. ^ The women and children who had been 
cooped up there instantly ran back to Captain Wells's 
garrison, while the men joined their rescuers in hot 
pui'suit of the retreating enemy. 

The pursuit was kept up for a mile and a half 
through the meadows, the exasperated English even 
throwing off hats and coats in their eagerness to over- 
take the fugitives. Wells, more prudent, vainly halloed 
to them to halt. They were too much carried away by 
the chase to hear him. 

1 It took fire while its valiant defenders were fighting in the meadows, and was 
burned to the ground with its contents. 



1704] THE SACKING OP DEERFIELD. 183 

All at once a rapid discharge of musketry scattered 
tliem in confusion. They had run headlong into an 
ambuscade which Rouville had cunningly laid for them, 
upon hearing the firing. A swarm of infuriated sav- 
ages now sallied out upon the little band of reckless 
white men, who, breathless with their previous exer- 
tions, sought safety in flight, keeping up a running 
fight, however, until the protection of the palisade was 
gained, when Eouville, satisfied with having cooled the 
ardor of his would-be pursuers, resumed his march 
the way he came. Nine of the English and five of the 
enemy fell in this rash encounter. 

By midnight eighty well-armed, resolute men were 
assembled at Deerfield. Word was brought in by an 
escaped prisoner that the enemy had encamped not 
more than five miles off. By two o'clock of the next 
day the Connecticut men began to come in, when the 
question of making a further pursuit was put to a vote 
and decided in the negative, as being a thing too haz- 
ardous to attempt without snow-shoes, the snow being 
so deep that the pursuers would have to travel in the 
enemy's track, exposed to being flanked or ambushed 
at every step. 

Much fault was found with the failure to pursue, and 
there can be little doubt that the check sustained on 
the previous day had something to do with it. Dudley 
gave vent to his disgust in his usual emphatic way. 
" I am oppressed," he declares, " with the remembrance 
of my sleepy neighbors at Deerfield, and all that came 
to their assistance, could not make out snow-shoes 
enough to follow a drunk, loaden, tyred enemy of whom 
they might have been masters to their honor." 

Words fail to describe the hon'ors of that dreadful 



184 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

march as day by day the winched prisoners toiled on 
through the deep snows or up the steep mountain 
narchto sldes, staggering beneath the weight of 

Canada. their burdeus. To fall behind was certain 

death. One blow of the tomahawk put a speedy end to 
the sufferings of those who failed to keep up wdth the 
rest. Poor Mrs. "Williams was one of the first to meet 
this fate ^ at the hands of her inhuman master, while 
her anxious husband, after being roughly refused the 
privilege of helping his wife up a steep ascent, was 
vainly waiting for her at the van of the forlorn proces- 
sion.^ 

At West River, sledges had been left, to which the 
Avounded and young children were now transferred, 
thus enabling the marauders to move on more ex- 
peditiously. At White Biver, fears of a pursuit having 
abated, they separated into smaller parties, the better to 
subsist by hunting. Part kept on up the Connecticut, 
part struck off into the valley of White Eiver, and 
across the Green Mountains to Lake Champlain. With 
these went Williams. Once, when his savage master 
roused him to begin the day's march, Williams found 
Williams's hard- his feet SO swoUeu and bruised that he 
ships. could hardly stand erect. In vain he 

pleaded his inability to keep up the killing pace his 
master required. The savage significantly fingered the 



^ Her body was recovered, and her grave mny still be seen in the old graveyard at 
Deerfield. 

"^ Hutchinson, II., 128. strangely defends the murder of these helpless prisoners, as 
an act necessary to the safety of the captors. But this sort of reasoning would as 
easily justify the slaughter of prisoners by civilized as by uncivilized combatants. As 
a matter of fact, under the savage code, a prisoner ceased to have any rights whatever. 
His captor might kill or keep him, just as he saw fit. Enough were killed to glut his 
thirst for blood, and enough saved alive to satisfy his avarice. Nineteen persons were 
thus Siicrificed during the retreat. 



1704] THE SACKING OF DEERFIELD 185 

tomahawk in his belt, and Williams found his strength 
wonderfully revived by the threat of instant death. 
After forty days passed in the wilderness, the weak, 
haggard, and footsore captive reached the French fort at 
Chambly, bowed down under the most acute distress of 
mind and body, having been separated from his chil- 
dren, of whose fate he was wholly ignorant. 

After suffering untold hardships, the surviving cap- 
tives straggled into the Indian villages on the St. Law- 
rence. Some sixty were eventually restored to their 
friends, a few at a time, either by ransom or exchange. 
By a sort of irony Williams, himself, w^as exchanged 
for a noted freebooter, called Baptiste, October, 1706. 
Eunice, his ten-year-old daughter, was adopted by the 
Caughnawaga tribe, embraced the Catholic faith, and 
eventually married a full-blooded Caughnawaga Indian 
Eieazer wiii= named Amrusus, who thenceforth appears 
'^'"^- to have taken his wife's family name of 

Williams. From this marriage came a grandson, 
Eieazer Williams, who achieved considerable notoriety 
rather more than a generation ago by pretending to be 
the son of Louis XYI. Eieazer, however, became a 
Protestant, and in 1822 went to establish an Episcopal 
mission among the Menomonees and AYinnebagoes at 
Green Bay, Wis., where he was married to Miss Made- 
line Jourdain of that place.^ 

1 I FIND the following memorandum concerning him among my fathers MSS. 
" Williams came to Boston several times and used to visit me. He was short and stout 
and spoke with a strong French accent. His errand was begging, in which he had 
pretty good success. His figure was not unlike that represented in the prints of Louis 
XVI., hence somebody started the ridiculous story that he was the dauphin of that 
king. Williams himself was evidently willing that people should believe the story. He 
said to me, in conversation, ' that he could say nothing about it, as he knew nothing, 
but that there were strange and unaccountable things in the story, especially respecting 
a scar on his person, which agreed with a similar one on that of the dauphin.' Williams 
died nt Hogansburg, N. Y.. August 2S, 1 S5S."— See the Appendix to Dr. S. W. Williams's 
edition (1853) of The Redeemed Captive. 



186 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

One feature of this raid,^elated by Peuliallow, is 
worthy of mention, if true, if only for its singularity. 
He says that some of our captives, then in Canada, who 
knew that this expedition of Rouville's was on foot, 
took advantage of it to send letters to their friends, the 
bag in which they were carefully put being afterward 
found hanging to the limb of a tree in the highway. 
And he adds that these letters gave comforting intel- 
ligence to those who before were ignorant whether their 
friends were living or dead.^ 

Charlevoix puts Rouville's loss at only three French- 
men, and a few savages (as if their losses were of small 
account) ; but adds that Rouville himself was wounded. 
Others make the number forty or fifty, judging from the 
dead bodies seen before the enemy had time to hide 
them under the ice of the river. 

1 Penhallow's account seems to differ little from the others. He says he had it 
from the Rev. Mr. (Solomon) Stoddard, minister of Northampton, Mass., who was not 
likely to have been misinformed as to leading facts. Much valuable information is con- 
tained in the Winthrop Papers, which were not accessible to earlier writers. 
Through Hoyt's and Sheldon's histories of Deerfield, the sacking of that place has be- 
come one of the best known chapters of local history. 



XIX 

THE ENEMY CUTS OFF BOTH ENDS OF THE LINE 

1704 

The tragedy of Deerfield sent a thrill of horror into 
every New England hamlet and home. What might 
not the daring enemy next attempt ? 

After the first shock was over, the authorities be- 
stirred themselves to guard against a repetition of such 
disasters. This was something like shutting the stable- 
door after the horse had escaped. Bitterly was the 
parsimonious policy condemned that had laid the whole 
valley open to attack. But it was now too late to in- 
dulge in vain regrets. The enemy must first be reck- 
oned with. 

Unfortunately there was no longer that concert of 
action that had existed under the old confederacy of the 
New England colonies, by means of which the forces to be 
furnished by each in time of war were duly apportioned. 
Old feuds and old dislikes prevented any cordial un- 
derstanding with Ehode Island. Winthrop, of Con- 
necticut, seems to have made up his mind to do just 
enough to save himself from the charge of indifference, 
and no more, let the demand be ever so pressing.^ 
But Deerfield seems to have stirred even his sluggish 
blood somewhat. In April he sent off sixty troopers 
to be posted at Hatfield until further orders. As re- 

1 See the correspondence in the Winthrop Papers. 



188 



THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 



[1704 



gards the eastern frontier, Dudley now succeeded in 
obtaining a hundred Pequots, Mohegans, and Niantics, 
wards of Connecticut, to serve on that exposed front, on 
the theory that Indians could be pitted against Indians 
with advantage. He had first meant to post them at 




GLIMPSE OF LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE. 



the foot of Lake Winnipesaukee, as a cover to the New 
Hampshire settlements, but had finally yielded to their 
fears of being cut off there, and had left them posted at 
Berwick instead. These Indians were under the com- 
mand of Major Samuel Mason, of Stonington. They 



1704] ENEMY CUTS OFF BOTH ENDS OP THE LINE 189 

were furnished with subsistence by Massachusetts, and a 
jper diem allowance of twelve pence by Connecticut, but 
were actually volunteers, or more accurately speaking, 
guerrillas. In this employment of those fragments of 
tribes, whom the English had once crushed with iron 
hand, against their own race, the moralist of to-day 
might find food for reflection, but the exigencies of 
those times were such as to require the prompt use of 
every available weapon within reach, regardless of what 
posterity might say. 

These arrangements enabled Dudley to withdraw an 
equal number of men for the expedition, now fitting out 
under Church, without weakening too much the vul- 
nerable points of the frontier. That expedition will be 
treated of in another chapter. 

But all could not prevent the skulking foe from strik- 
ing at both points, so carefully guarded, at nearly the 
same time. They first broke in at the weak eastern 
corner, just out of reach of Dudley's Indian contingent. 
On May 11, 1704, as Nicholas Cole, of Wells, with Nich- 
olas Hodgdon, Thomas Dane, and Benjamin Gooch, all 
three soldiers belonging to Wheelwright's garrison, 
were out looking for some stray cattle, they weiis men 

were attacked by a party of twelve Indians, killed, 

who kiUed Cole and Hodgdon, took Dane prisoner, but 
failed to secure Gooch, who made his escape to the gar- 
rison. A party immediately set out in pursuit of the 
marauders, but failed to come up with them.^ 

At the extreme western corner of the line a war-party 
of French and Indians, eluding the vigilance of the 
scouts, surprised a garrison in the lower part of North- 

I Boston Neios Letter, May 15 to 17, 1704, where Gooch is called Gough, probably 
owing to the habit of pronouncing it as if spelled Googe to this day. 



190 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

ampton,^ May 13tli, before day, killing or taking all the 
inmates. In all twenty persons were slain. After re- 
Northampton treating for some distance, the raiders 
struck. ggjj^ back a wounded prisoner to warn his 

friends that if they followed in pursuit the rest of the 
prisoners would be instantly despatched. The unfort- 
unate messenger was met on the road, alone and un- 
armed, and slain by Indian stragglers. Colonel Whit- 
ing chased this party for two days without coming up 
with them — " a weary march to no purpose," sighs 
Samuel Partridge. 

The people of Hatfield were aghast at the audacity 
of the thing. Partridge writes : " We are so surprised 
that we day and night stand upon our guard, and most 
of oui* men keep watch every other night, and spend 
our whole time in the day fortifying, so as to be in a 
posture of defence." 

Meanwhile, trustAvorthy intelligence had reached the 
valley to the effect that the enemy was building a fort 
and planting corn at a place high up the river, called 
in the Indian dialect Cowass or Cowassuc,^ and now 
known as the Great Connecticut Oxbow. 

If true, this piece of news boded no good to the 
English settlements below. But, first of all, it was 
necessary to know whether it was true or not. 

To this end, a scouting-party of six was sent out 
from Northampton early in June to clear the mystery 
up. After a fatiguing tramp of nine days through the 
wilderness they came to the river not far from the sup- 
posed site of the fort. While debating what move to 
make next two Indians came in sight paddling a canoe. 

1 Then called Passacomuo, now Easthanipton. 

2 Between the towns of Haverhill, N. H., and Newbury, Vt. 



1704] ENEMY CUTS OFF BOTH ENDS OF THE LINE 191 

This was taken as a sign that they were on the right 
scent. Until sunset they lay close. As it grew dark, 
smoke was seen curling up above the tree- Lyman's 

tops about half a mile off. With all the ^'^p'o'*- 

care requisite to conceal their approach, it was two 
o'clock in the morning before the assailants could reach 
the spot aimed at, when it was found that the smoke 
had come from a wigwam which stood in plain view a 
few rods before them. While hesitating how to ap- 
proach it without waking the inmates, rain began fall- 
ing, and presently a " smart clap of thunder " sent, as 
the pious narrator ^ relates, by " God and his good 
providence," drowned the noise made by the assailants 
in forcing their way through the surrounding thickets. 
Then, after creeping on their hands and knees to with- 
in three or four rods of the wigwam, the eager scouts 
rose to their feet, ran up and fired a volley into it, in- 
stantly flinging down their empty guns and rushing in 
upon the astonished savages to finish the work with 
clubs and hatchets. 

Two escaped ; seven were killed on the spot. Six 
were scalped, the victors leaving the seventh unscalped 
at the ironical suggestion of one of their number, who 
said that inasmuch as they now had a scalp apiece, they 
could well afford to give one to the country. 

Not venturing to .remain longer in the vicinity, the 
scouts immediately made the best of their way home, 
without, however, obtaining the information they had 
come for. Being in constant fear of pursuit, they were 
nearly starved to death before reaching the settlements, 
having eaten nothing for four or five days except young 

1 Caleb Lyman's account in Penhallow. 



192 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

buds, strawberry leaves, and even grass, to alleviate the 
pangs of hunger. 

The actors in this bold exploit bitterly complained 
because they received only thirty-one pounds reward 
from the government, when, in fact, the scalp bounty 
had risen by this time to thirty-two pounds a head in 
Massachusetts, to which New Hampshire added enough 
to make the whole bounty forty pounds. Dudley wrote 
that he had 1,900 men and twenty vessels in service at 
this time. The people were loudly groaning under the 
burden of taxation, which this state of things imposed. 
If, therefore, as was claimed, every Indian killed by the 
regular forces cost a thousand pounds, the payment of 
forty pounds to a volunteer who took a scalp without 
expense to the government would, of course, be looked 
upon as an economical measure from every point of 
view. And the mutilation of a dead body was consid- 
ered essential to establish the equity of a claim to the 
bounty — nothing more. 



XX 



CHURCH'S LAST EXPEDITION 

May, 1704 

The tragedy of Deerfield so stirred the blood of the 
yeteran Church that, although now grown corpulent 
and getting on in years, he mounted his horse 
and rode seventy miles to Boston to offer his 
services to Governor Dudley again. After some 
exchange of views as to the proper method of 
crippling the enemy, which Church always in- 
sisted could only be done by carrying the war 
to their own doors, he was put in command of 
a new expedition, designed to make a clean 
sweep of the coasts of eastern Maine and Nova 
Scotia. This done, he was directed to pay a 
visit to Norridgewock on his return, should it 
be found practicable to do so, and lay waste 
that standing menace to the peace of the Maine 
frontier. Governor Dudley would not sanc- 
tion an attack on Port Koyal, though Church 
strongly desired to destroy that nest of con- 
traband traders, among whom, it was whis- 
pered, some New England merchants might be church's 
found, base enough to turn the enemy's wants 
for carrying on the war against them to their own 
profit. 

While these preparations were on foot, in the month 
13 



194 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1'704 

of April, 1704, there appeared in Boston the first num- 
ber of the first newspaper published in the English 
colonies, The Boston News Letter} Strangely enough 
this diminutive sheet, not larger than a modern hand- 
bill, contains no reference whatever to the war then 
raging, or for that matter to anything else that should 
stamp it as the destined progenitor of the great news- 
paper of the present day. Indeed, the history of that 
period could never be written from the columns of the 
News Letter alone. 

With his usual activity, Church soon succeeded in 
raising a mixed force of English and friendly Indians, 
chiefly in old Plymouth colony, to the number of five 
hundred and fifty men, a few Indians being allotted to 
each company of whites. Church boasted that there 
was not a pressed man among them. Like the previous 
ones, this expedition was provided with enough whale- 
boats to move half the command against any given 
point at once. Celerity and secrecy of movement were 
thus secured. Two armed vessels of the royal navy, 
and one sailing under the province flag, were to act as 
a convoy to Church's fleet of transports. 
arms. ^^ gj^ort, the expedition in all respects was 
as well, if not better, equipped as any that had been 
sent out on the same errand. One step in advance may 
be noted here. A certain number of improved muskets, 
recently imported, were distributed among the new 
levies, and thus came to be known as Queen's Arms. 
Dudley had certainly acted with vigor, and Church 
had seconded his superior to the best of his ability. 

J A SINGLE number, of a similar sheet, had been issued nearly fourteen years before 
(September 25, 1690), under the title of Pxiblic Ocnirrence.% but summarily suppresped 
for circulating "doubtful and uncertain reports." The matter is largely made up of 
news of the war then raging, 



1704] 



CHURCH'S LAST EXPEDITION 



195 



In the main, the same old programme was marked 
out for this expedition. Church was too old a cam- 



^ffsfcff/tsX X^/'irer 



jiUnsleaj- CastcenS 




FrAfOBBcoT 

JSAyr 






& 



<:=i 



ANCIEKT CHART OF PENOBSCOT BAY. 



paigner not to know that the prospect of coming upon 
the hostile Indians unawares was poor indeed. Burn- 
ing their deserted wigwams might be compared with 



196 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

burning so much old brushwood. They were almost as 
easily rebuilt as destroyed ; and it was too early in the 
season to lay waste the Indian cornfields. Church 
therefore had proposed to himself the rooting out of as 
many of the French trading and fishing stations of 
Nova Scotia as he should have the time to visit, satis- 
fied in his own mind, as he was, that it was there he 
could do the enemy the most harm. It being impracti- 
cable to reach Canada, he argued that the next best 
thing to do was to strike where the enemy was most 
vulnerable — that is througli Nova Scotia. This was 
rude strategy, to be sure, but it was the only means left 
of making reprisals for such murderous raids as that of 
Hertel de Kouville. 

After seeing his fleet under sail, Church accompanied 
Governor Dudley to Portsmouth, where a company of 
New Hampshire soldiers reinforced the expedition. 
Leaving the ships of war behind as a blind, on May 15th 
the transports made sail direct for Matiuicus Island,^ 
where active operations may be said to hpve begun. 

Next day a small party, sent off on a scout to the 
nearest group of islands," was lucky enough, to capture 
three Frenchmen and an Indian, before they could make 
good their escape, from whom, under threats of torture. 
Church obtained some reliable information as to the 
numbers and positions of the enemy in this quarter. 
He then pretended to relent. In gratitude for having 
their lives spared, two of the prisoners piloted Church 
to several small habitations of the French in Penob- 
scot Bay, that of St. Castiu among the rest. St. Castin, 



' Matinicus lio^ out in the open ocean, seventeen miles soutlieast of Owl's TToud ; the 
lonely outpost of IVnobscot Bay. 

'■« fJiiEEN Islands of the Fox Islands Kroup are probably meant. 



1704] CHURCH'S LAST EXPEDITION 197 

himself, was luckily gone to France, but his wife and 
children fell into Church's hands. All of the enemy met 
with here, whether French or Indians, were either killed 
or taken, though the actual numbers are unknown. 

Mount Desert was next visited. On the way there 
every nook and corner of the coast was thoroughly ex- 
plored, every possible precaution taken to waylay any 




ENTRAKCE TO MOUNT DESERT HARBOR. 



of the enemy's war -parties who might be coming 
westward on one of their destructive raids, and for 
whom Church was now so sharply on the lookout. Fail- 
ing to make any discoveries of this nature, Church's 
flotilla rowed on into what is now the Southwest Harbor 
of Mount Desert, a primeval solitude of wild sublimity, 
suddenly turned into a scene of unwonted activity by 
the presence of the ships-of-war and transports, lying 
there at anchor. 



198 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

Tlie expedition had now traversed something like 
fifty leagues of coast without effecting anything of con- 
sequence, while the labor involved in making these 




AT MOUNT DESERT ISLAND. 



night excursions was excessively arduous, the men being 
either constantly at the oars or kept scrambling over 
rocks and through thickets, loaded down with their 
arms and packs. Still Church Avould not be disheart- 



1704] CHURCH'S LAST EXPEDITION 199 

ened. After taking some provisions out of the trans- 
ports, he once more set his face eastward, leaving the 
ships to follow him later, while he resumed his careful 
examinations along shore, as one wild headland opened 
upon another before him. Machias Bay was thus 
reached and explored from top to bottom, but even in 
this noted rendezvous of the redskins neither tracks nor 
fires were discovered. The place was wholly deserted. 
So again, Church pushed on into Passamaquoddy Bay, 
where he had been constantly told he would find plenty 
of Indians; so that here, at least, he had hopes of ef- 
fecting something that should redound to the credit of 
the expedition. 

The first landing in this fine bay was made upon the 
island where Eastport stands to-day, June 7, 1704. 
One or two French families, probably At Eastport, 
petty traders, were then living on this isl- "«• 

and. Church forthwith seized and questioned them 
closely ; and upon the strength of a story invented by 
an old woman on the spot to mislead him, to the effect 
that there were Indians lurking in the woods about 
them. Colonel Gorham was left here to look after them, 
while Major Hilton crossed the bay to scour Campobello 
Island. With the rest of his force Church then pushed 
on up the bay, the same night, coolly braving the perils 
of wl. .rlpools or tidal eddies that make the passage dif- 
ficult enough in the daytime, but seldom attempted at 
night even by the best pilots. But Church knew that 
a single hour's delay would render all chance of success 
hopeless. 

At a little before day a landing was made at another 
French habitation ^ on the St. Croix River, so noted in 

1 Called Gourdan's in Church's account. 



200 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

the early annals of New England. The people here 
were surprised, and taken without resistance. After 
In the St. looking to the disposal of these prisoners, 

^''°'*- Church followed on after his men, who 

were industriously looking about them for more enemies. 
They were under standing orders to adA ance only in 
open order, so that if suddenly fired upon the fire would 
do as little harm as possible. By the dim light Church 
saw some of them crowding up around a solitary hut, 
nearby. Angry at so flagrant a violation of his orders. 
Church called out to them to know what they were do- 
ing there. They answered that there were some of the 
enemy in the hut who would not come out. " Then 
knock them in the head ! " shouted back the choleric 
old man. This order, given in haste, and repented of at 
leisure, was promptly executed by the excited soldiers.^ 

Finding nothing more here the English pushed on 
up the river to the falls,^ where still another French 
trader was living on a spot always much resorted to by 
the Indians on account of the fishery, and now cleverly 
turned to account as a rallying point from which to set 
forth on the war-path. 

The advancing force being discovered, nothing could 
be effected here except to destroy some dried fish, which 
the enemy had been curing for winter use on the bank 
of the river, and the exchange of a few harmless shots 
with the owners, who ran howling into the woods. 

Having united all his detachments below% and being 
joined by the shipping there, a descent was next 
planned against the French posts in Nova Scotia, in 



1 Church himself justifies the act by a reference to the atrocities committed by the 
enemy at Deerfield and elsewhere. 

2 Probably at Calais, 



1704] CHURCH'S LAST EXPEDITION 201 

pui'suance of which the armed , ships sailed to blockade 
Port Royal, and Church, in his transports, to Mines, or 
Grand Pre, on the basin of Mines. Having arrived 
before the place when the tide was low, Church was 
forced to lie out in his whaleboats all night, waiting for 
the flood. Next morning the English, upon landing, had 
a harmless skirmish with some of the enemy, who were 
simj^ly making a show of resistance to cover the driving 
off of their cattle. In pursuing these too eagerly the 
English lost the only men killed during the whole ex- 
pedition — a Lieutenant Barker and one private of 
Church's own company. 

That night Church set fire to the place ; in the morn- 
ing the dykes were cut by his orders, so as to flood the 
farms rescued by the Acadians from periodical inun- 
dation, with such great labor to themselves.^ The 
work of destruction being completed, the English re- 
turned on board of their transports with Grand Pr6 
the prisoners taken either here or in the burnt. 
neighborhood. It should be said in explanation of 
Church's acts here that he merely carried out the ex- 
press orders of Governor Dudley, conceived, it must be 
admitted, rather in a spirit of savage barbarity than of 
fair and honorable warfare. Yet it was but a foretaste 
of what the future had in store for the doomed Aca- 
dians of this romantic region. Enough of them were 
now carried off to offset the number of English captives 
held in Canada. 

The transports next sailed back to Port Eoyal, where 
the whole fleet was once more united, but not, it seems, 
ready for action. Thus far Church had been laying 

1 They made the mistake of cultivating the low meadows instead of the uplands, to 
avoid the labor of felling the timber. 



202 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

waste undefeiuled places, ^vllere little risk was run. 
Here an opportunity for more brilliant action offered 
itself, as Port lioyal Avas defended by a fort in which a 
permanent garrison was kept. It was also the chief 
port of Acadia. In short, if Port Koyal fell, Acadia 
would be rendered both harmless and helpless. Yet, 
with a force at hand fully competent to the task before 
it, nothing Avhatever was attempted. The invaders con- 
tented themselves with a mere idle demonstration — 
with lying off in the basin out of cannon-shot. The 
fort was not even summoned. It is hard to understand 
Port Royal the true motives of this ridiculous affair. 

looked at. jf^ ^g Qhurch alleges in his narrative, he 

was restrained by peremptory orders from making 
an attack at all, why was he there? If, again, these 
orders were as imperative as he makes it appear (and 
his truthfulness is not called in question), why should he 
have submitted the question of an attack to a council 
of war, which decided against it, on the ground that the 
place was too strong for them ? Thus, instead of being 
an exhibition of strength, the expedition had only 
shown its weakness. Yet Church still had nearly 400 
men fit for duty, with three ships carrying almost a 
hundred guns at his back.^ 

Church, therefore, leaving Port Eoyal unscathed, 
sailed away to Chignecto (Beaubassin) at the head of 
the Bay of Fundy. The inhabitants having received 
timely warning had carried off their effects out of 
Chignecto Church's reach. But this did not prevent 

laid waste. their making a feeble opposition to his 

landing, though they ran away as soon as the invaders 

1 The French accounts make it appear that an attempt was actually made and 
repulsed. Nothing is found in the English accounts to support this claim. 



1704] 



CHURCH'S LAST EXPEDITION 



203 



were drawn up ready to charge them. After destroy- 
ing the settlement Church turned homeward, calling 
again at Passamaquoddy, Mount Desert, and Penob- 
scot, without seeing an Indian at either place. 

At Casco, Avhere he next put in. Church found orders 
awaiting him, directing him to march up to Norridge- 
wock before returning home. Finding his men strongly 
opposed to making 
the march, now that 
their minds were bent 
upon a speedy com- 
ing home. Church 
readily found an ex- 
cuse for disobeying 
the order. Thus end- 
ed Church's fifth and 
last expedition. A 
wide extent of terri- 
tory had been trav- 
ersed, a few insig- 
nificant villages de- 
stroyed, and a num- 
ber of prisoners, 
equal to those taken 
at Deerfield, brought away. The expedition was looked 
upon in the main as a failure, and if the adaptation of 
means to ends be looked to, it was one. So far from 
suffering loss, the Indians had been merely frightened 
away from their old haunts, like birds of prey before the 
fowler. AVhen he had passed on they came back again. 
Nothing was more true or more certain thau that the 
geographical position of Port Royal was a constant 
menace to the New England fisheries. And as its re- 




RUINS OF CHURCH'S HOUSE, 



204 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704 

duction had been the professed object of the expedition, 
the failure to attack it easily provoked suspicion that 
all was not as it should be. And when Dudley's agency 
in the matter became known, as it eventually did, his 
motives were severely impugned. In fact, Dudley had 
not taken the public into his confidence. His alleged 
reasons, as stated by Church, failed to satisfy an in- 
creasing number of political and personal enemies, and 
indeed were puerile in the extreme. 



XXI 

NEGOTIATIONS FOR NEUTRALITY 

July, 1704— April, 1706 

The scene of Indian depredations now shifts for the 
moment from the harassed frontier to one of the older 
settlements. On the last day of July, 1704, some four 
hundred French and Indians fell upon Lancaster, 
Mass. It was rather more than half the Lancaster 

force which had set out from Quebec, **^^®*- 

under the command of Beaucour, boasting to lay 
waste the Connecticut Valley with fire and slaughter. 
When it had reached the Connecticut, a disgruntled 
Frenchman seized the opportunity of deserting to the 
English, thus frustrating the original plan of a surprise, 
and causing part of the invading force to turn back dis- 
heartened, while the rest struck off into the woods 
toward the Nashua. Our scouts, perplexed by these 
movements, were at a loss to penetrate the enemy's de- 
signs, nor was it possible to tell where the blow would 
actually fall next, though the valley settlements, guided 
by their own fears, thought there might be some snare 
to entrap them. 

Lancaster being a frontier town. Captain Jonathan 
Tyng was posted there with a company of soldiers. 
The enemy's first onset was made in the west part of 
the village, near Lieutenant Wilder's garrison. Wilder 
himself and three more persons were killed here dur- 



206 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704-1706 

iug the day. Tyng rallied what men he could, and with 
the aid of some Marlborough men, under Captain How, 
made a resolute attempt to save the village, but being 
greatly outnumbered, he was at length driven into the 
shelter of the gamsons, leaving the rest of it in the 
possession of the exultant enemy, who then set about 
the work of wanton destruction unoj)posed. In a short 
time the meeting-house and several dwellings were in 
flames, and all burned to the ground. The marauders 
also butchered a great part of the live stock belonging 
to the inhabitants. 

Meanwhile the alarm was rapidly spreading through- 
out the neighboring towns, whose inhabitants, seizing 
their weapons, flocked to the assistance of their dis- 
tressed friends in such numbers as to enable them to 
renew the fight upon more equal terms, when the ma- 
rauders, seeing only blows were to be had by remaining, 
beat a hasty retreat, carrying their dead and wounded 
along with them.^ 

Yet, notwithstanding that the English were now 
everywhere on the alert, the savages continued to 
strike first in one place, and then in another, keeping 
up their petty, but irritating, warfare of small parties 
against isolated farms or neighborhoods all summer.^ 

In the beginning of August one of these prowling 

bands waylaid a small scouting party, going from 

Northampton to Westfield, killed one man 

y war are. ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ Hiore prisouers. There being 

more of the English coming up in the rear, the assailants, 

1 During this winter a story was current in the Connecticut Valley that Vandreuil 
had first imprisoned Beaucour and then degraded him and taken away his sword. 
Lette7' of William Whitin^r. 

2 Under date of May 8, 17U5, Sewall records that several " persons killed and carried 
away last Friday " from York and Spruce Creek. 



1704-1706] NEGOTIATIONS FOR NEUTRALITY 207 

in their turn, were unexpectantly assailed and quickly 
routed, with the loss of tAvo killed and all of the prisoners 
just taken. Groton, Aroesbury, and Haverhill in Massa- 
chusetts, and Exeter, Oyster Eiver, and Dover in New 
Hampshire, all suffered more or less from the visits of 
these small scalping parties.' In October their reappear- 
ance in the neighborhood of Lancaster ^ was the cause of 
a fatal mistake by which the Rev. Andrew Gardiner, min- 
ister of the place, lost his life. It seems that a scout had 
been out the day before looking for the enemy. The 
soldiers composing it came back worn down with hard 
travelling. Out of consideration for those whose turn 
came to stand guard that night Mr. Gar- ^ev. Andrew 
diner volunteered to mount guard himself, Gardiner. 

and did accordingly take his post in the watch-box, over 
the flanker, when the time came to man the walls, remain- 
ing there until a late hour, when, as he was coming 
down from his post, he was seen, shot at, and mortally 
wounded by a soldier of the garrison, who took him for 
an enemy. The unfortunate clergyman lived only long 
enough to forgive the man who shot him, and to take 
a last leave of his sorrowing friends. 

Winter having set in, it was fairly hoped that the 
Norridgewock village might be surprised by a sudden 
dash, while the enemy were off their guard. In the 
very heart of winter, with the snow lying four feet 
deep, so that the frozen wilderness stretched out before 

1 At Oyster River they wounded William Tasker, and at Dover laid an ambush for 
the people returning from public worship, but happily missed their aim.— Belknap. 
August 11th they wounded Mark Gyles of Dover (with his son), who died a few days 
after. Another party fell on York, where they slew Matthew Austin and then went to 
Oyster River, where they killed several while at work in their fields.— Penhallow. 

2 OcTOBFR 15, 1705, three men are carried away from Lancaster, from Mr. Sawyer's 
windmill.— Sewall's Diary. They were Thomas Sawyer, his son Elias, and John 
Bigelow. 



208 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704-1706 

them one vast sheet of dazzliiig white, Colonel Hilton 
set out with two hundred and seventy hardy borderers 
for the distant Kennebec village, where more mischief 
Hilton's had been hatched against the whites than 

march. jj^ ^ny other place short of Canada. The 

long march was expeditiously made on snow-shoes, the 
onset duly arranged, but when the village was reached 
not a soul was to be found. The birds had forsaken 
the nest. After setting fire to the deserted wigwams 
and to the chapel,^ which stood at one end of the village, 
the baffled rangers inarched back the way they came. 
And so all this expense, hardship, and fatigue went for 
naught. 

These two examples, one of a successful, the other of 
an unsuccessful, raid, tell the whole story of this war. 
The Indians knew that they could always find the Eng- 
lish, while the English were never sure of finding them. 

Spring brought with it a brief respite from a conflict 
w^iich never seemed nearing its end, and wdiich it was 
realized that the enemy might protract indefinitely; 
yet a respite of any sort was thrice welcome to those 
who lived in constant fear of death by violence. Most 
unexpectedly a ray of light pierced through the sur- 
rounding gloom. It was learned that steps had been 
Exchange taken looking to an exchange of prisoners, 

of captives. Qf all the trials arising from the war, per- 

haps the hardest to bear was the suspense relative to 
the fate of friends or relatives. That innocent women 
and children should be held for ransom was perhaps 
one of the penalties attached to carrying on a war with 
barbarians, but that a people like the French, profess- 
ing to represent in themselves the highest type of 

1 This chapel had been built by English carpenters iu 1G98, iit the conclusion of peace. 



1704-1706] NEGOTIATIONS FOR NEUTRALITY 209 

Christian civilization, should, either openly or covertly, 
sanction such a practice, was not only fostering one of 
the worst features of the war, but to all intents it was 
descending to the level of the savages themselves. 

The history of these negotiations affords a welcome 
relief from the relation of one murder after another. 

In October, 1704, a letter was received at Wells from 
Captain Samuel Hill/ announcing the safety of several 
of his neighbors who had been mourned by their friends 
as dead. Later, in December, John Sheldon and John 
Wells applied to Governor Dudley for leave to go to 
Quebec, with the view of opening the way for the re- 
lease of their friends in captivity there. Agents go 
The application was approved, and it was ^"^ Quebec. 
decided that Captain John Livingston, of Albany, should 
be employed to conduct Sheldon and Wells on their 
journey to Canada. 

Early in May Hill himself arrived at Boston, he hav- 
ing been paroled by Yaudreuil, with the same general 
object in view. Hill reported a Hundred and seventeen 
persons, old and young, in the hands of the French, 
and seventy more scattered about among the Indians. 
The boys and girls were kept apart from their parents ; 
the adults were put to work, either as domestics or at 
such occupations as they had followed at home. 

Within a week or two Livingston and the other mes- 
sengers returned, bringing with them Captain Courte- 
manche, a French officer, whom Vaudreuil had com- 
missioned to conduct the negotiations counter- 
on his part. Better still, the messengers proposals, 
brought back with them two of Sheldon's children, his 
son's wife, Hannah— the same who had sprained her 

1 Taken at Wells, August 10, 1703. 

14 



210 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704-1706 

ankle at the time she wa^aken — besides one of the 
children of Mr. Williams.^ 

Courtemanche was handsomely treated by Dudley, 
but his demand for the release of one Baptiste, a notori- 
ous freebooter, then lying in Boston jail, charged with 
piracy, proved a stumbling-block to the negotiations, as 
Dudley, who fully intended to hang Baptiste, plumply 
refused to include him in the exchange. Livingston 
declares this refusal to have been the only thing that 
hindered the parties from coming to an agreement then 
and there. 

Nothing being settled, Courtemanche was sent back 
by sea early in the summer, in company with Vetch, 
Hill, and young William Dudley, the governor's son, to 
continue the negotiations at Quebec.^ They took with 
Neutrality them the draft of a treaty of neutrality 

tendered. drawn up by Dudley, which was submit- 

ted to Vaudreuil soon after their arrival in the autumn. 
This important step, ^whicli seems to have been kept 
very quiet, put an entirely new face upon the situation, 
and in view of possible results had need of being con- 
ducted with the greatest secrecy and delicacy on both 
sides. 

Dudley's agents got back to Boston in November, 
having been detained by Vaudreuil until the home- 
bound fleet had sailed from Quebec, as a matter of pre- 
caution. They brought with them counter - proposals 

1 In a letter to Mrs. Livingston, dated at Quebec, April 21, 1705, Williams warmly 
acknowledges his debt to her husband. 

' VaudreuiIj was afterward mildly reproved for the freedom allowed the negotiators 
while in Quebec. The Minister writes as follows: "The illness which obliged your 
envoy, Sienr de Courtemanche, to return in an English brigantine, has much the 
appearance of having been assumed as a cover for trade, etc." He further declares 
that Vaudreuil ought to have had young Dudley and Vetch duly " attended," meaning 
watched, while they were in Quebec. — Ponchartrain to Vaudreuil, June 9, VtOfj. 



1704-1706] NEGOTIATIONS FOR NEUTRALITY 211 

from Vaudreuil, providing for the cessation of all hos- 
tile acts between the two governments, a general ex- 
change of prisoners, besides guaranteeing the shipping 
of each party from capture by the other, but forbade 
New England vessels from fishing on the coasts of 
Acadia. The limit for concluding was fixed in the 
following February. The envoys also brought home 
with them five or six Enghsh prisoners,^ one of whom 
was Stephen Williams, the young son of Eev. John 
Williams,^ taken at Deerfield. 

As the people of New England would rather have 
fought ten years longer than to give up the rights they 
had always claimed in the fisheries, after submitting 
Yaudreuil's proposal to the General Court, Dudley de- 
spatched another messenger to Quebec in the winter by 
land. Up to this time Yaudreuil had been acting under 
instructions from the King's minister, Ponchartrain, 
whose feelings of magnanimity had at length revolted at 
the useless barbarities practised by his savage allies, 
but Vaudreuil now believed he saw through Dudley's 
motives in protracting the negotiations under the flimsy 
pretext that the proposed treaty must be ratified by all 
the English colonies, and, piqued at the discovery that 
he was being played with to gain time, he made prep- 
arations calculated to force matters to a definite issue.^ 
Meantime the negotiations reverted to the question of 
exchange, which was now pressed to some purpose. It 
will be easily understood that while these mysterious 
messages were passing between the two governors, the 

1 " Taken at the eastM-ard."— Dudley's Letter. 

2 Afterward minister of Longmeadow, Mass. 

» The time fixed having expired, " I permitted several small parties of our Indians to 
recommence liostilities in his (Dudley's) government, in order to force him to declare 
himself."— Vaudreuil to the Minister, April 28 (N. S.), 1700. 



212 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1704-1706 

prisoners and their friends were enduring the most 
cruel suspense. 

In the winter (1705-6) John Sheldon, whose activity 
in behalf of his old friends and neighbors is worthy of 
high praise, went a second time to Canada, as Dudley's 
messenger. By this time Dudley had made up his 
mind to yield the point with regard to Baptiste, which 
Sheldon's he had said he never would do. Sheldon 

good work. jjq^ brought back forty-four released pris- 

oners, chiefly taken at Deerfield. In the same summer 
the brigantiue Hope took a number of French pris- 
oners to Quebec,^ for whom fifty-seven English were 
received in exchange, the minister AVilliams being given 
up for the pirate Baptiste. Some few more were not 
obtained until the foUoAving year. 

The inside history of these negotiations sheds light 
upon the dilatory motions of the contracting parties. 
In. fact, complications arose at the very outset. Yau- 
dreuil, for instance, insisted that the English must treat 
with the Indians for the captives held by them, as he, 
Vaudreuil, disclaimed all authority over them. This 
Ransom brought from Dudley a point-blank refusal 

refused. ^q negotiate on any such basis, pointedly 

styling it "an Algiers trade," and to still another per- 
son, who had vainly worked upon his sympathies, de- 
claring his fixed resolve "never to buy a prisoner of 
an Indian, lest we make a market for our poor women 
and children on the frontiers." For his final word he 
assured Vaudreuil that he, Dudley, " would never per- 
mit a savage to tell him that a Christian prisoner was 
at his disposal." 

All this had a very heroic sound indeed, and in 

I Penhallow says seventy. 



1704-1706] NEGOTIATIONS FOR NEUTRALITY 213 

theory was excellent, but in practice it did not work 
well with Indians who had only refrained from knock- 
ing their prisoners on the head for the sake of the ran- 
som. To Yaudreuil it simply meant that he, instead of 
Dudley, would have to pay the price demanded. 

But more difficult than all the rest to deal with was 
the act of those who, unable to resist the temptations 
held out to them, had voluntarily sundered all ties 
binding them to home or kindred. Some had turned 
savages, others had embraced the Catholic religion. In 
either case the separation was full and complete. In 
its way the work had been as thoroughly seceding 

done in the smoke and dirt of the wigwam, captives. 

as in the seclusion of the convent, for when the time 
came to claim their children the grief-stricken parents 
were told by those having them in their keeping, and 
with apparent candor too, that their son or daughter 
no longer owned their authority. Indeed, in some 
cases, children actually had to be kidnapped by their 
own relatives and carried off by force. 

It is safe to say that this method of enfeebling an 
adversary had not been foreseen in New England. But 
bad as it was, a relapse into savage life was less de- 
plored, perhaps, than a relapse into Catholicism, so to 
speak, for not death itself could have cast such a dark 
shadow over a sorrowing household as the knowledge 
that one of its members had abjured the faith of his 
fathers for one he had been taught to look upon from 
his cradle as the way of perdition.^ Some even became 
eminent members of the Koman Church. Among others,. 
Esther Wheelwright, who had been carried away from 
Wells when a child, became the Mother Superior of the 
Ursulines of Quebec. 

1 In proof of tliis, see p. 33 of this work. 



214 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1704-1706 

These incidents, so peculiar in themselves, and so far- 
reaching in their results, belong to what may be called 
the psychic phenomena of these wars. They go to 
show that their horrors were by no means confined to the 
work of the axe or the gun, but also inchided other, 
yet no less effective, methods of disintegration suggested 
by a policy as deep as it was unassailable. No more 
touching incident meets the eye of the student of these 
wars than that of the aged parent vainly watching for 
th-e one who, though living, never came back. 

To make an end of the matter of a neutrality, each 
party accuses the other of double-dealing. It is certain 
that Dudley employed all his art to keep the negotia- 
tions open as long as possible. It is equally certain 
that Louis approved of the treaty. But with this brill- 
iant despot the point of honor was suj)reme. Even as 
late as June, 1707, when the treaty was practically dead, 
he strictly charged Yaudreuil to take care that it should 
not be made in the name of Queen Anne, as he did not 
recognize her as the Queen of Great Britain. 

But the proposal came many years too late. Too 
late Vaudreuil put before Dudley the absurdity of their 
cutting one another's throats without in the least affect- 
ing the result as between the two great belligerents. 
There was now but one sentiment in New England 
among high or low, and that sentiment had become so 
embedded in the popular mind as to be ineradicable. 
In a word, the conquest of Canada was become as much 
the settled policy of the future as the '^ delenda est 
Carthago " of the Koman senator.^ 

In Canada there was much grumbling because young 

^ Dudley claims to have urged this upon the queen ever since the beginning of the 
war, or for "these seven years past, by all the officofj proper."— XeWer to Lord Su?i- 
derla7id, Aiigust 14, 1709. 



1704-1706] NEGOTIATIONS FOR NEUTRALITY 215 

William Dudley, tlie governor's son, had been allowed 
to remain so long in Quebec about the business of the 
negotiations. It was even asserted that he and his com- 
panions had been detected in the act of examining and 
measuring some of the fortifications.^ But here neither 
party had the advantage of the other. Yaudreuil's 
agents had been instructed to do the same thing. 

Although there was a truce to active hostilities while 
negotiations were going on, several persons lost their 
lives at Kittery during the summer.^ The winter was 
quiet, perhaps because the frontier garrisons were now 
well provided with snow-shoes, so making the Indians 
more cautious. 

1 Chaklevoix : Vetch was also accused of taking soundings of the St. Lawrence, in 
going and returning. 

2 At Spruce Creek (Kittery) five were killed and five more taken. Among the slain 
was Mrs. Hoel, a gentlewoman of birth and education. Enoch Hutchins lost his wife 
and children. John Rogers was afterward dangerously wounded, and James Toby 
shot still later.— Penhallow. See anic, for mention of this war-party. 



XXII 

HOSTILITIES RESUMED 

April, 1706— October, 1706 

Hostilities were resumed in the spring of 1706. In 
April the Indians attacked the house of John Drew, 
at Oyster River. Eight persons were killed and two 
wounded here. There was a garrison-house near at 
hand with nobody in it, except some of the women who, 
Durham 88= nothing daunted, let down their hair, put 
sauited. Qjj men's hats, and fired away so briskly 

from the loops that the enemy fled without even secur- 
ing the booty found at Drew's house. A townsman, 
John Wheeler, who fell in with the party, was killed, 
with his wife and two children. Four of his sons made 
good their escape by taking refuge in a cave near the 
shore of Little Bay. After looking for them in vain, 
their pursuers gave over the search. 

In June Dudley was warned from Albany that an- 
other war-party would soon be upon him. He at once 
applied to WinthrojD for one hundred men to reinforce 
the valley garrisons without loss of time ; these to be 
folloAved by a much larger force. His letter closed 
with this Parthian shaft : " The first is necessar}^ to 
save their lives till the last comes. Otherwise, I only 
expect your people to come to their fimeral, as has been 
done sometimes before." 

Dudley's advices made this war-party, said to be mis- 



1706J 



HOSTILITIES RESUMED 



217 



sion Indians from St. Francis, two hundred and seventy 
strong. Piscataqua was its supposed destination. The 
people were at once ordered into close garrison, scout- 
ing parties set in motion along the frontier, patrols 
organized in the villages, and one-half the militia di- 
rected to be in readiness to march at a minute's warn- 




ANCIENT GARRISON, DRACUT, MASS. 



ing.^ Indeed, the emergency was such that in July 
Massachusetts had one thousand men under pay for 
the defence of her frontiers.^ 

This time the enemy had shrewdly chosen the most 
remote settlements on the Merrimac as the point of at- 
tack. They were not, however, left unguarded. The 

1 This seems about the earliest meution of the subsequently famous minute-meu. 

2 Letter of Secretary Addington. 



218 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1706 

blow fell first upon Dunstable.^ On July 3d a garrison 
in which Captain Pearson of Rowley with twenty 
troopers was posted was assaulted by this band. It 
chanced that the soldiers had just returned from a 
scout without making any discovery, and after turning 
their horses out to graze in the meadow, taking off 
Fighting at their equipments, and laying aside their 
Dunstable. arms, werc indulging in a carousal in true 

barrack-room fashion, to make amends for the fatigues 
of the day. Worse still, no sentinels were posted. At 
sunset John Cummings and his wife went out to milk 
the cows. Meantime the Indians had quietly sur- 
rounded the house, and when Cummings and his wife 
came out of it they were fired upon. Mrs. Cummings 
fell dead on the spot, and her husband was taken. With 
loud yells the Indians then rushed through the open 
gate into the house before the astonished soldiers could 
have time to seize their arms or get themselves into a 
posture for defence. A furious hand-to-hand fight took 
place, in which such of the soldiers as had not lost their 
heads laid about them with chairs, clubs, or whatever 
else they could lay hands upon, with such effect as 
finally to clear the house of their assailants. 

1 Dunstable first included Tyngsborongh. It was settled before 1697. 

2 Sewall refers to this affair as follows: " You will too soon hear of the sorrowful 
news of one of Captain Nelson's sons being killed in a garrison at Dunstable, this last 
summer, where my sister Dorothy's husband, Northend, narrowly escnped. ""—Sewall 
Papers, October 15, 1706. 

The account given in Farmer and Moore's Historical Collections is substantially 
followed, though it is there erroneously referred to the time of Lovewell's War, and 
contains other very apparent discrepancies. For instance, it is hard to understand just 
why the Indians should not have discovered the presence of the soldiers if then- horses 
were turned out to pasture, or have shut their ears to the sounds of the carousal, if one 
was really going on at the time. The main incidents, however, are vouched for by 
Hutchinson, Penhallow, and Dudley, though the whole story smacks of embellishment. 
Dudley says that nine English were killed to seven Indians, thus disproving the state- 
ment that only the trumpeter was killed on the side C)f the English. He also confirms 
the fact of a surprise, or rather of criminal negligence. 



1706] HOSTILITIES RESUMED 219 

From here the savages went to Daniel Galusha's, 
about two miles distant, on Salmon Brook, where they 
quickly despatched Kachel Galusha, but oaiusha's gar= 
luckily missed another woman who had *■'***"• 

the presence of mind to hide herself underneath an 
empty cask in the cellar, until the intruders had gone. 
But, after plundering the house, the savages had set it 
on fire, and the poor woman, imprisoned in the cellar 
by the flames, only effected her escape by tearing away 
the loose stones from around a small hole with her 
naked hands, until the opening was large enough for 
her to crawl out through it. 

On the same day the Indians forced the garrison of 
Nathaniel Blanchard, killed him, his wife, and also a 
Mrs. Hannah Blanchard. They then scattered them- 
selves through the contiguous towns as far as Wilming- 
ton,^ Mass., where, on the night of July 8th, one party 
forced an entrance into the house of John Harnden, 
while he was absent, killed his wife and three children, 
and carried off five more. These last are said to have 
been recovered by a pursuing party of Harnden's 
neighbors. 

On the next day some forty of the marauders fell 
upon Amesbury, where eight of the inhabitants were 
killed. Two others, who were at work in Murders at 

the fields, took refuge in a deserted gar- Amesbury. 

rison, in which two unserviceable old guns had been left, 
without powder or ball. These were, however, pressed 
into service, and when the savages ventured near the 
house the guns were thrust out of the loopholes at them ; 
while the men, whose lives were staked upon the success 
of their clever ruse, called out to each other, " Here 

1 Then part of Reading. 



220 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1706 

they are, but don't fire till they come nearer ! " These 
two brave white men had the satisfaction of seeing their 
cowardly assailants slink away to cover again. 

Still another band, who had marked Major Hilton for 
their especial prey, lay in Avait for him around his gar- 
rison at Exeter, where they could see all who went in 
or out of it, without detection. One morning ten men 
came out of the house with their scythes, and w^ent 
away into the fields to mow. After they had laid aside 
their guns to begin mowing, the crawling savages sud- 
denly rose up and rushed in between them and their 
fire-arms, killed four, wounded one, and captured three 
more. The two others made their escape. Two of the 
prisoners, Hall and Miles, afterward came in, in a de- 
plorable state, having lived for three weeks on roots and 
the inner rind of trees. 

Chelmsford, Sudbury, Groton, Hatfield, and Brook- 
field also suffered more or less during this incur- 
sion, the subtle enemy, as usual, inflicting much loss 
and sustaining little themselves. Indeed, it was fairly 
reckoned that so far every Indian killed or taken in 
this war had cost the English a thousand pounds. 

Dudley had complained to the queen of the back- 
wardness of Connecticut in furnishing men, and Win- 
throp had received the queen's commands on the sub- 
ject. This drew a tart letter from Winthrop to Dudley, 
who stiU insisted that Connecticut had not furnished 
her proportion. The relations of the two men had long 
been strained and this incident did not tend to diminish 
the friction between them. 

An exposure took place this summer which made a 
great noise at the time. It was an open secret that the 
Albany merchants were getting rich by trading with the 



^706] HOSTILITIES RESUMED 221 

Canada Indians ; but this was being done under coyer 
of a gwasf-truce, wbicli no doubt was sufficient to quiet 
the consciences of those engaged in thus giving^ aid 
and comfort to the enemy. No such state of things, 
however, existed in New England. With the enemy at 
their doors, such conduct on the part of her merchants 
was altogether too flagrant to admit of any such miser- 
able subterfuge as that. 

A certain number of English prisoners were known 
to be in the hands of the French at Port Eoyal. The 
authorities at Boston having fitted out a small vessel 
to go there for the purpose of procuring an exchange, 
the opportunity was seized by some weU-known mer- 
chants of Boston to open a contraband trade there and 
elsewhere, along the coast, under the cover of a flag of 
truce. AVilliam Eowse, master of the vessel, was a 
party to the scheme. So was Samuel Yetch, who had 
figured so prominently in the negotiations of the year 
before. All the parties to the plot were no doubt rea- 
sonably certain of the connivance of Bo- iiiegai 
naventure,! the French commandant, in *"**•"«' 
their schemes, for Bonaventure subsequently entered 
into a labored attempt to clear himself from the charge. 
In doing so he implicates still another Boston mer- 
chant.2 j)es Goutins, king's commissary, confirms the 
general charge in a letter to the Minister of the follow- 
ing year, in which he says that there were " no pots, 
scythes, sickles, knives nor iron in the country. They 

. BBOUiLLAN having returned to France. Bonaventure, lieutenant du '^\'^^^^fj^ 
command, but was not made governor at Brouillan's death, as he expected, the po.t 
being given to Subercasc instead. u„rPR 

. '?MK. NELSON, merchant at Boston, being indebted to me in the sum «« 5.000 hvres, 
which I had lent him at the tin.e of his i.uprisonment in France wishing « ™-^« P^' 
Int, had sent me by the packet-boat, for 1,300 livres. goods consxstmg of cloth, scythes, 
and pots."— Le«er to the Minister. 



222 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1706 

would be lucky," he adds, "if the enemy would sell 
them goods again for their beaver, but Subercase is op- 
posed to it." 

Eowse made two trips on this business. On the 
first he brought back only seventeen prisoners, and on 
the second but seven more. His long stay at Port 
Koyal to accomplish so little excited suspicion, and at 
his last returning he was charged with having spent his 
time in trading with the enemy in goods contraband of 
war, instead of attending to the business for which he 
was sent. Being unable to clear himself, he was sent to 
prison. Besides Yetch, John Borland, Roger Lawson, ^ 
John Phillips, Jr., and Ebenezer Coffin, all merchants 
in good standing, were also apprehended and put under 
bonds on a similar charge. What came to light, as a 
result of these proceedings, caused a general burst of 
indignation, particularly against Yetch. Some of the 
more clamorous ones even wanted him confined "in 
the stone cage " for fear he should get awa}^^ Even 
Dudley himself came in for a share of the popular in- 
dignation, as being a party to these underhand transac- 
tions. 

There being no court of competent jurisdiction, the 
offenders were tried before the General Court.^ Paul 
Dudley, son of the governor, was the prosecuting attor- 
ney. All were found guilty and sentenced to pay various 
sums— Rowse, £1,200 ; Borland, £1,100; Lawson, <£300 ; 
Yetch, £200 ; Phillips, £100, and Coffin^ £60. These 
fines were, however, remitted by order of the queen, on 
the ground that the General Court had exceeded its 

1 Letter of J. Winthrop to Fitz-John Winthrop. 

2 Under date of August 16th, Sewall makes this entry in his diary : " Captain Vetch 
was brought to his trial in the court chamber." August 17th, he notes down that " Mr. 
Borland pleads that he was a factor in the aflfair." 



1706] HOSTILITIES RESUMED 223 

powers. Dudley was exonerated, the matter charged 
against him being of too trivial a nature to be pushed, 
much to the disgust of his many enemies, who had 
hoped for a different result. In fact a petition was for- 
warded to the queen praying for his removal. In answer 
to this prayer, reiterating the charges of corruption, 
both branches of the General Court passed votes of con- 
fidence in the governor. His assailants then resorted 
to printing anonymous pamphlets.^ But in the end 
Dudley prevailed over both open and covert attacks, 
chiefly, it would seem, by reason of his address in the 
management of men. At court Dudley was looked upon 
as representing in his own person the principle of royal 
supremacy, as opposed to the old Puritan doctrines of 
popular rights. So long, therefore, as the complaints 
against him emanated from that source, Dudley was 
reasonably sure of being sustained at London. For 
the rest, he was not the man to give an inch to his op- 
ponents. They might worry him, but they could never 
put him down. 

> Reprinted in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 5th Series, Vol. VI. 
Hutchinson, Vol. II., prints the petition and answer. 



XXIII 

FUTILE SIEGE OF PORT ROYAL 

May, 1707 

Every such raid as that recounted in the last chapter 
only made the impossibility of protecting either life or 
property in open villages, whose inhabitants were farm- 
ers, more and more manifest. When one of these war- 
parties was abroad no man's life was safe outside of a 
garrison. It may well be conceived that to men, strong, 
robust, inured to labor, and accustomed to the freedom 
of outdoor life, nothing could be more irksome than to 
be shut up within the four walls of a garrison. Hence, 
in spite of warnings, orders, or entreaties, fatal risks 
were taken, and many valuable lives thrown away. 
This species of assassination was draining the life-blood 
of a few struggling frontier villages drop by drop. 

On the other hand, few Indians were killed in these 
sudden encounters. In the quiet of a summer's day 
a distant gunshot would be heard, and its meaning 
easily guessed. Nine times in ten, before the scattered 
neighbors could be rallied the marauders would be be- 
yond pursuit. Could the Indians have made good even 
their small losses the war might have dragged on in- 
indians losing definitely; but unfortunately for them, 
ground. continued attrition was wasting them away 

Avithout the power to recuperate, so that their numbers 
were steadily diminishing. A more efficient means to 



1707] FUTILE SIEGE OF PORT ROYAL 225 

their destruction than the edge of the sword was the 
wasting of their crops, thus often reducing them to the 
verge of famine. 

In January Colonel Winthrop Hilton, with two hun- 
dred and seventy men, made a scout eastward as far as 
Casco without meeting with an enemy. But when come 
near Black Point, on his way back, a small band was 
tracked, four of them killed, and a squaw Hiiton 

taken prisoner. The woman, who had a scouts, 

papoose at her breast, was either compelled by threats, 
or prcA^ailed on by promises, to lead the English to a 
camp of eighteen more Indians, all but one of whom 
were slain while asleep.^ 

Dudley had been kept in a state of alternating hope 
and suspense in regard to his favorite project of sub- 
duing Canada, by reason of the heavy demands that 
the war in Europe was making upon England. It 
was only by returning again and again to the subject 
that the queen's ministers were induced to fall in with 
it at all ; but even then it was treated as something 
that could wait ; so that Dudley's patience was sorely 
tried. 

All hope of receiving effective aid this year (1707) 
having failed, and smarting under the wounds his repu- 
tation had suffered at the hands of his enemies, who 
boldly charged him Avith having sent Church off to 
Port Royal on a fool's errand, Dudley seems to have 
resolved upon making one more attempt, single-handed 
and alone, trusting to its success to retrieve his rep- 
utation and silence his defamers. It proved another 

1 It is this affair to which the following curious entry refers: "Gave thanks for 
the news of the eighteen Indians killed and one taken last Tuesday." — Sewall Papers, 
II., 181. In February, 1706-7, a strong scouting party went to Monadnock, another 
noted rendezvous for war-parties. 

15 



226 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1707 

wretclied cxliibition of a^^egated incompetency, ig- 
norance, and pulling at cross-purposes. 

But before anything could be done the popular feel- 
ing must be worked up to the fighting point. And 
here traces of the deeply rooted faith that they were 
God's people, guided by His almighty hand, are clearly 
manifest in the acts of those who then gave direction to 
public opinion. Honest Samuel Sewall, our Pepys, re- 
cords that " several ministers pray'd (at the desire of the 
Praying against court) that God would Speedily, by some 
Port Royal. Providcuce or one way other, let us know 
what might doe as to going against Port Eoyal." Just 
how this manifestation of the divine wisdom was ex- 
pected to appear is not so clear ; but it is evident that 
the barbarous dictum that God is on the side of the 
strongest artillery would have found few followers in 
the Puritan capital. 

Meantime, the practical side of the question was be- 
ing earnestly discussed at the council board. In this 
instance, a regular fortification, built on a hill-top, 
mounted with heavy cannon and garrisoned by regular 
troops, was to be taken either by siege or assault. 
New England Here was no question of mere bush fight- 
miiitia. j^g^ sucli as the rustic New England sol- 

diery had been used to. The best soldiers were none 
too good for this sort of work. It is no less to the 
credit of the provincial militia that they were ready to 
undertake the unusual task with some confidence. Yet 
we find certain fastidious critics speaking of the rank 
and file as if nothing but failure was to be expected, 
when, as a matter of fact, the material was precisely 
the same as that which won Louisburg and defended 
Bunker HilL 



1707] 



FUTILE SIEGE OF PORT ROYAL 



227 



Two full regiments were raised in Massachusetts, 
New Hampshire, and Ehode Island.^ Colonel Francis 
Wainwright, of Ipswich, commanded one, and Colonel 
Winthrop Hilton, of Exeter, the other. Colonel March, 
an excellent partisan officer, whose brilliant defence of 
Casco had won for him the place formerly held by 




COLONEL FRANCIS WAIKWRIGHT'S HOUSE, IPSWICH, MASS. 

Church in the public estimation, was put in chief com- 
mand. The two regiments mustered 1,076 officers and 
men ; and there was also a small artillery Make=up of ex= 
corps, in charge of Colonel Eedknap,^ an p^^"'**"' 

Enghsh engineer, which with supernumeraries brought 
the whole number up to 1,150 officers and men. Will- 

1 RHODE ISLAND furnished eighty men. She was alive to the fact that her commerce 
was suffering from the depredations of French corsairs. See what Subercase says at the 
end of this chapter. Connecticut declined to furnish any men, Winthrop makmg some 
very lame excuses. There was one company of Cape Cod Indians, commanded by Cap- 
tain Freeman, of Harwich. For the roster of the expedition see Vol. V, 3d Series, 
Massachusetts JTistorical Society Collections. 

2 REDKNAP succeeded Wolfgang Romer, one of King William's appointees, as siiper- 
vising engineer of sea-coast fortifications. Romer was persona non grata to Dudley, 
who sharply rebuked him for his arrogant deportment. 



228 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1707 

iam Dudley, the governor's talented son, accompanied 
the expedition, in the rather anomalous capacity of secre- 
tary of war, and there were no less than five chaplains to 
keep the rude soldiery in touch with home and its in- 
fluences, while exhorting them to a valiant use of their 
carnal weapons. 

On May 26th ^ the fleet cast anchor in Port Koyal 
basin. A thousand men Avere landed the same after- 
noon seven or eight miles from the fort, part on the north 
shore under Appleton, and part on the south or fort side, 
under March himself. Fault was found with landing 
the men so far off, as the lone^ march up to 

Troops land. n n i c i p 

the fort consumed all the rest of the after- 
noon, besides defeating the important object of cutting 
off communication between the fort and country at once. 

Young John Barnard, one of the five chaplains, has 
told the story of the preliminary movements somewhat 
in detail. He was with Lieutenant-colonel Appleton's 
detachment, which moved off the ground first. 

" It being so late ere we landed, we could not reach 
the place of our destined encampment, but after several 
hours' travel, partly thro' hideous woods and fallen trees 
across the way, which we sometimes climbed over, at 
others crept under, at length we arrived where were two 
or three houses and barns, and at nine o'clock at night 
took up our quarters there. There also Captain Free- 
man and his company of Indians, who flanked our left 
as we marched along, who also had a warm skirmish 
with about forty or fifty French, came to us without the 
loss of a man." Appleton's movement was essential to 
cover March's advance. 

1 The old style is adhered to for the sake of conforming to the English accounts and 
records. The dates in Charlevoix are new style. 



1707] FUTILE SIEGE OF FORT ROYAL 229 

By their own admission, the sudden appearance of 
this fleet, the disembarkation of the English in such 
force, with their prompt advance toward the fort, put 
the French in such a fright that Subercase had great 
trouble in restoring their courage to the fighting point. ^ 
He, however, kept up a bold front, and by throwing 
out a numerous body of skirmishers, who sharp skirmish- 
knew every inch of the ground, contrived '"2- 
to delay the march of the two attacking columns as 
much as possible, thus gaining time for the inhabitants 
to come in from the out - settlements. Appleton had 
brushed away his assailants. To oppose March an am- 
bush was laid at the crossing of Allen's Creek, a small 
stream, bordered by copses of thick brushwood, which lay 
between him and the fort, so that when his van came up, 
on the morning of the twenty-seventh, there was some 
sharp skirmishing before the English could shake off 
their assailants, and move on to the ground they were 
to occupy. In this encounter five men were wounded. 

March now encamped at the foot of the hill on which 
the fort stood, where a few deserted houses offered 
some shelter to the weary soldiers. The task before 
him was by no means an easy one. From the ramparts 
of the fort forty cannon, some of them thirty-six pound- 
ers, frowned upon the hostile camps. A vigorous as- 
sault might perhaps have proved successful. March 
shrank from making it. The other alternative was to 
bring up his artillery, make a practicable breach in the 
walls, and then, if the fort still held out, try the fortune 
of an assault only as a last resort. Upon finding their 
commander in that disposition, the soldiers naturally 

1 " Ce qui causa une si grande allarme que le gonverneur eut bieii de la peine d 
rassurer le garnison."— Charlevoix. 



230 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1707 

came to the conclusion that the place was stronger than 
it really was. 

Everyone was therefore asking why the artillery was 
not brought up. This duty naturally fell to the naval 
officers, who now came forward with a positive declar- 
ation that the thing could not be done under fire of 
Fatal de= the fort. The opinion was hotly contest- 

'^y*- ed, but the royal officers would not budge. 

From that moment the fate of the expedition was sealed. 
It is true that Kedknap had begun the work of raising 
batteries, though his spiteful temper when on shore 
showed how fully he shared the antipathy of the sea 
officers for the land officers, which proved the shipwreck 
of the whole undertaking. But batteries without cannon 
were seen to be labor wasted. The place, however, was 
closely invested, trenches opened, and a regular siege 
begun, which, if resolutely kept up, could hardly have 
failed of its object, even if the English had confined 
Quarrels their efforts to holding the French cooped 

break out. ^p within the four walls of their fort ; but 

at the moment when the battle was half won, the lead- 
ers lost heart, they fell to quarrelling among themselves, 
their disputes spread to the soldiers, and soon all sub- 
ordination was at an end. 

March was at his wit's end. His council advised one 
thing one day and recalled it the next. On May 31st, 
only five days after landing, it was decided that the 
place was too strong to be attacked with any prospect of 
success. Chaplain Barnard gives an amusing account 
of an interview he had with March on that occasion. 

"When Colonel Appleton went over to Colonel 
March's camp," the honest chaplain goes on to say, 
" he took me along with him. After the council-of-war 



^ C-i ^ %^ J ^ "« '33 










232 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1707 

was over, General March, meeting me, took me aside 
and said to me, ' Don't you smell a rat? ' I, who knew 
not what he intended, Scdd, ' No, sir.' ' Why,' said 
he, ' Colonel Appleton is for staying to break ground 
only to have his wages increased.' I said, 'Sir, I am 
a stranger to Colonel Appleton's intentions.' He then 
said to me, somewhat roughly, ' I have heard you 
have said the artillery might be brought ' (and indeed 
I had said so to Colonel Appleton, and even j^rojected 
a safe method for it). I said to him, ' Sir, I think it 
may.' * AVell then,' said he, ' it shall be attempted ; 
you shall be the one that shall bring it up.' I replied, 
' Sir, that is not my business, as you well know ; how- 
ever, if it will be of public service, and you please to 
command nie to it, I will readily venture myself on it, 
and find a way to do it.' ' Yery well,' said he." 

There is no evidence that the youthful chaplain's 
services were ever brought in requisition, though al- 
ready he had won a reputation for bravery by march- 
ing alone beyond the lines for the purpose of making 
a sketch of the fort ; and while thus engaged a cannon- 
ball had struck the ground so near him as to cover him 
with dirt ; whereupon Barnard, suddenly realizing that 
he had no business there, beat a hasty retreat. 

Good or bad, Redknap's objections had decided the 
breaking up of the siege, at what one officer indignant- 
ly calls " ye fatal council of war." There was no 
gain-saying a professional opinion, solemnly delivered. 
Yet there was a stormy time. The decision was re- 
tracted, then reaffirmed. "I think our general was 
both fool and boy-ridden," ^ is the tart comment of one 
disgusted bearer of a commission. 

1 Pkobablt referring to William Dudley. See Hutchinson, II., 152, 7iote, 



17071 FUTILE SIEGE OF PORT ROYAL 233 

Charlevoix relates, with considerable detail, a repulse 
which he says the English met with on the night before 
the siege was raised, while making an assault on the 
fort. The English accounts make this only a demonstra- 
tion designed to cover the burning of some siege 
buildings outside the fort, and close to it, is raised. 
which was successfully done, under a hot fire of cannon 
and musketry. " Never did men behave more bravely 
or bolder," is the enthusiastic comment of an eye-wit- 
ness of this affair. 

The army was re-embarked on June 6th. Most of the 
fleet put in at Casco, whence March despatched Hed- 
knap, with two other officers,^ to break the news of his 
failure to Dudley. 

But their ill news had flown before them, and a unique 
reception awaited their coming. Upon landing they were 
compelled to elbow their way through a crowd of noisy 
women, drawn together from the lowest quarter of the 
town, who saluted the unlucky envoj^s with mocking cries 
of " Welcome, soldiers ! " One of these vira- cutting 

gos, Avho carried an enormous sword of lath in taunts, 

her hand, rudely thrust it into their faces, at the same time 
bawling out, " Fie ! for shame ! pull off those iron spits by 
your sides ; for wooden ones is all the fashion now ! " ^ 

After running this gantlet, the crestfallen trio walked 
on under a running fire of the coarsest abuse, with a 
constantly increasing crowd of children, servants, and 
idlers following close at their heels, all shouting, " Port 
Eoyal ! Port Koyal ! " 

Dudley was furious. All his bright anticipations 
were clouded in disgrace. What was to be done ? He 

' Captain Sutton of the Royal Marines, and Holmes of the provincials. 
8 Lettek of John Winthrop, in Winthrop Papers. 



234 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1707 

knew too well that lie was the bright and shining mark 
at which all the obloquy would be levelled. Again all 
the old trumped-up charges would be revived. Many 
would rejoice at his discomfiture. It was not in Dud- 
ley's nature to sit down quietly under it. He decided 
on heroic treatment. The armament was practically 
intact. He would send it back. The frame of mind he 
was in may be inferred from the following sentence of 
a letter to Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut : " They 
are returning to that ground where I mean to have them 
lye fifty days at least." 

It was an unwise decision, yet no doubt had the sup- 
port of the people. There had been some desertions.^ 
Two additional companies in a measure made good these 
losses, but could not restore life to a body already ex- 
piring. Three prominent civilians ' were sent to act as a 
council to March, with authority to overrule him, if they 
saw fit. Again the fleet sailed. A second 

Second landing:, it 

landing was made on August 10th, on the 
north side of the harbor ; for Subercase had employed 
the interval in throwing up field works on the ground 
formerly occupied by March, so that the situation was 
now wholly changed for the worse.^ 

Though staggered by the unexpected return of the 
English, Subercase immediately resorted to his old 
tactics of wearing them out by keeping up an incessant 
firing upon their camps, waylaying foraging or recon- 
noitring parties, or cutting off stragglers, so making it 
dangerous for them to stir beyond their own line of 

1 Some of the Plymouth and some of the New Hampshire men had gone home. 
The rest of the Plymouth men were confined in the Castle at Boston. See Belknap's 
New Hampshire, I., 343. 

"^ They were Colonels Hutchinson and Townsend, and John Leverett. 

s WainwrighVs letter to Dudley. 



1707] FUTILE SIEGE OF PORT ROYAL 235 

sentinels. In a very short time it was the English who 
were besieged in their camp. 

The rest of the story is soon told. March broke 
down under the strain, and turned the nominal com- 
mand over to Wainwright.^ Meantime the provincial 
troops were marched a quarter of a league above the 
fort, with the evident design of making their approach 
from the rear. Subercase learned from a prisoner of the 
plan to carry the artillery past the fort, under cover 
of the night, and cleverly defeated it by gharp fighting. 
lighting fires all along the banks. Wain- 
wright then fell back to a point opposite the fort, was 
cannonaded out of it, moved still lower down, and 
finally, on the 20th, goaded into attempting something, 
crossed his whole force over to the fort side and advanced 
as if to assault it in earnest. Subercase sent St. 
Castin out to ambush them. There was sharp fighting 
for a time, with the probable object of drawing out the 
entire garrison, as otherwise the demonstration was 
mere bravado ; but Subercase would not venture upon 
so dangerous a step, until he saw the Eng- English draw 
lish falling back to their boats. Then a °"- 

second and third detachment were hurried off to St. 
Castin's aid. All three were sent back, very roughly 
handled. The English then re-embarked, unmolested, 
apparently satisfied with having shown that they could 
fight, even when nothing was to be gained by it.'^ 

1 Colonel Francis Wainwright died at Ipswich, August 3, 1711, within a few days 
of the date fixed for his marriage, and after a very short illness. Sewall says of it : 
'"Tis the most compleat and surprising disappointment that I been acquainted with. 
Wedding Cloaths, to a Neck-cloth and Night-Cap, laid ready in the bride chamber, with 
the bride's attire. Guests several come from Boston but no bridegroom." -^Set^a/i 
Papers. 

2 On the English side sixteen were killed, and as many wounded, and three killed and 
fifteen wounded on that of the French. M. «le Saillant, enseigne de vaisseau, was 
among the killed ; M. de Boularderie and St. Castin among the wounded. 



236 THE BORDER WAR^F NEW ENGLAND [1707 

Boston was thrown into a ferment. Dudley manfully 
endeavored to extract some consolation from the storm 
of disaster, but as everybody knew the truth, the effort 
to disguise it was worse than idle. The three high 
commissioners were laughed at for their pains; and 
jeered at in the streets wdth such stinging remarks as, 
"The three Port Koyal worthies!" "The three 
champions ! " etc. " But what could be done when the 
very devil had entered into the common soldiers ? " is 
the concluding observation of a distressed looker-on. 

All summer roving bands of Indians were infesting 
the highways beyond the Merrimac, killing, scalping 
and robbing unwary travellers. To enumerate all the 
casualties of this nature would be tedious. One, how- 
ever, may be mentioned. On August 10th some of 
these lurking assassins fell upon a party of four horse- 
men, who appear to have been escorting a Mrs. Little- 
field from York to Wells. The lady had a considerable 
sum of money with her. Only one of the party escaped 
to tell the horrid tale. 

Upon the return of the Port Boyal expedition the 
enemy grew bolder. They seemed to bear Oyster River 
a peculiar grudge, although that place had suffered 
more than all of its neighbors. In September a party 
of French Iroquois, hideously painted, suddenly rushed 
from their coverts, and with piercing yells fell upon 
Killing at Dur= a Company of men who were engaged in 
*'*™- cutting and hauling timber in the woods, 

under the direction of Captain Chesley. Seven fell 
dead, and one was mortally wounded, at the first fire. 
Chesley, with those left alive, manfully stood his ground, 
until he himself shared the fate of his companions. 
He was a brave oflicer, just returned home from Port 



1707] FUTILE SIEGE OF PORT ROYAL 237 

Kojal, where lie had distinguished himself by his good 
conduct. 

Exeter, Kingston, and Dover, in New Hampshire, and 
Berwick, York, Wells, Winter Harbor, Casco, and even 
the inland town of Marlborough, in Massachusetts, suf- 
fered to a greater or lesser extent. The winter, how- 
ever, passed in quiet ; but that quiet proved the deceit- 
ful prelude of what was coming. 

Subercase was in great spirits over his successful de- 
fence of Port Royal, and its results. He very reason- 
ably believed this success should be vigorously followed 
up. In this vein he writes to the Minister ^ that three 
hundred New England vessels had fished this summer 
(1708) on'the banks and shores of Acadia, all taking an 
abundant catch ; and asks that a swift-sailing man-of- 
war be sent out to cruise for their capture. He declares 
that she would make a million a year in prizes, would 
probably capture the Boston frigate (probably meaning 
the provincial cruiser), enable him to fortify La Heve, 
and if, as he believes, settlers came here in consequence, 
he would, with these helps, capture Rhode Island, which 
he says is inhabited by rich Quakers, and is the resort 
of rascals and even pirates. 

Nothing is said of the West Indian corsairs who 
preyed upon the New England fishermen without mercy, 
carrying their prizes into Port Royal and receiving 
whatever they needed in exchange for captured goods. 
Subercase was boastful, but Dudley refused to acknowl- 
edge himself beaten yet. 

1 Letteb of December 25, 17U8. 



XXIV 

HAVERHILL SACKED 

August 29, 1708 - 

Strange to say, although war raged so fiercely in New 
England all this time, a kind of truce existed between 
Canada and the province of New York. Both had their 
selfish reasons. To provoke the still formidable Iro- 
quois would be to bring down a horde of enemies on 
the back of Canada. An attack on the Dutch or Eng- 
NewYork hsh Settlements would furnish the prov- 

neutrai. ocatiou. Louis, therefore, had given strict 

orders to Vaudreuil ^ not to disturb the English on the 
Hudson so long as they kept quiet, and, on their part, 
the Albany traders found golden reasons for keeping 
quiet, so long as they themselves were let alone. It 
was well termed a criminal neutrality, since it left 
Canada free to throw her whole strength against New 
England, instead of having to look two ways at once ; 
and while she was being impoverished by the war, the 
Dutch traders at Albany were actually making money 
by it. 

This anomalous state of things permitted the old 
channel of communication, so long existing between 
Indian go= the scccding Mohawks and their relations 

betweens. j^ ^e\v York, to be kept open, as in time 

of peace. Both parties came and went freely. The 

1 Vaudbeuil to Subercase, cited by Hutchinson, II., 180, 158. 



1708] HAVERHILL SACKED 239 

Albany traders found this arrangement profitable, the 
French Indians secured cheap goods for their beaver, 
and the Canadian authorities were only too glad to wink 
at it for reasons already pointed out. As the French 
historian, Charlevoix, truly says: "Thus our own ene- 
mies relieved our most faithful allies when they were 
in necessity, and while they were every day hazarding 
their lives in our service." 

It is true that this unauthorized neutrality was also 
a means of getting intelligence of the enemy's plans. 
Peter Schuyler was indefatigable, as well in his efforts 
to keep the Massachusetts authorities advised of Yau- 
di-euil's designs, as in holding the French Mohawks 
aloof from joining his desolating war-parties. But it is 
much to be doubted whether this advan- ^ ^ . . 

Peter Schuyler. 

tage was not more than offset by the 
contraband trade which made it possible. Indeed, it 
would be putting it mildly to say that this sort of secret 
service did New England quite as much harm as good. 
On the other hand, the events now to be related go to 
show that Schuyler's skilful intrigues sometimes bore 
fruit at a most critical time. 

Eumor had for some time been busy with a great 
war-party that Yaudi-euil was said to be forming for 
a raid into New England. As the destined point of 
attack could only be guessed, the whole frontier was 
strengthened, the roads patrolled, and the inhabitants 
warned to be more than ever vigilant. So the spring 
passed and summer began. 

Late in June, 1708, Colonel Schuyler^ wrote from 

1 ScHUTLEB's letter is dated June 22d. He had been in Boston a short time before. 
Hutchinson, II., 131, credits this information to Colonel John Schuyler. It was Colonel 
Peter. 



240 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1708 

Albany to Governor Dudley the clieering intelligence 
that he had succeeded in persuading several of the hostile 
sachems, leagued with the French, " to throw down the 
hatchet at the feet of the governor of Canada," thus 
signifying their resolve not to go out on the war-path 
against New England again. He also added that he 
had great hopes of prevailing with the Indians, lower 
down the St. Lawrence, to adopt the same course. 

At this very hour an expedition was in preparation 
against New England on a laj-ge scale. It had been re- 
solved upon at a great council, held at Montreal, at 
which the chiefs of all the mission Indians domiciled in 
the colony were present, and had promised to furnish 
the warriors demanded of them. One hundred picked 
Canadians, with a sprinkling of volunteers from the 
regular troops, were to take part. Besides these, a 
A great war- Sufficient number of friendly Abenakis 
party. from the New England villages were ex- 

pected to join the expedition on the march, to bring 
the whole force up to four hundred strong. St. Ours 
des Chaillons and Hertel de Rouville were to command 
the French, and La Perriere the Indians. The better 
to conceal their march, as well as to hasten it, the dif- 
ferent bodies were to take as many different routes to 
the designated rendezvous, at the foot of Lake Winnipe- 
saukee, where the Abenakis should have preceded them. 
From thence two short marches would bring them down 
upon the Piscataqua settlements — Berwick, Salmon 
Falls, Dover, Portsmouth, Oyster Kiver or Durham, 
etc. — where the meditated blow was to fall without 
warning. 

On July 26th this formidable expedition set forward 
through the wilderness. Fortunately for those against 



1708] HAVERHILL SACKED 241 

whom it was directed one party of Hurons and another 
of Caughnawagas turned back, the one disheartened by 
the accidental death of a warrior, which was considered 
an evil omen ; the other, among whom Schuyler had so 
diligently sown defection, seemingly glad of any excuse 
to abandon the enterprise altogether. 

Though disconcerted by this wholesale desertion, the 
leaders pushed on, under positive orders from Yau- 
dreuil, although their force was now much too small for 
the sweeping blow first planned. A further disappoint- 
ment awaited them at the rendezvous. No Abenakis 
joined them there. Instead,, therefore, of Haverhiii 

throwing themselves upon the nearest set- ^^^ object, 

tleiiients, the raiders moved off toward Haverhill, some 
sixty miles farther west, under the impression that it 
would prove a far more easy conquest. 

At Haverhill, the Merrimac courses leisurely on be- 
tween high ridges of land, that slope upward by easy 
ascents to moderately level, commanding crests, where 
the outlook in all directions was wide and ample. Ex- 
tensive as it was, it embraced nothing but one unbroken 
solitude, one vast virgin forest, dimpled with shadows 
here or dashed with sunlight there. There was not a 
white man's cabin anywhere in sight. 

Buried in the depths of these forests the enemy was 
coming on without fear of discovery. 

Just here, at Haverhill, the ridge is broken through 
to admit the passage of Little Eiver, coming down out 
of the hills, at the east, to throw itself into the Merri- 
mac. This was the open postern through which the 
village was easily assailable on that side, weakly guard- 
ed by a garrison or two on tlie heights beyond, where 
Thomas Dustan formerly lived. Unless this outpost 
16 



242 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1708 

gave the alarm, Haverhill lay at the mercy of the in- 
vaders. 

As to the village, it still consisted of no more than 
thirty houses chiefly grouped near the foot of the ridge, 
where it is washed by the river, with a few more scat- 
tered here and there along the crest above, like watch- 
houses on a castle wall. In one of these ^ lived Simon 
Wainwright, captain of the village militia. From his 




1 . 1 1 1 



t 



BITE OF WAINWRIGHT GAKKISON, HAVERHILL, MASS. 



Wainwright's 
house. 



doorstep Wainwright could look off over the dense 
forests stretching far and away to the east, could follow 
with his scrutinizing eye through this 
labyrinth of aged woods the windings of 
Little Biver, from its vanishing point among the dis- 
tant hills to where it finally breaks through the natural 
embankment on which he stood ; and he could also 
plainly see if all was well with his lonely neighbors 



1 The house shown in the engriiving Ls oppo.-,ite Winter Street Church. 



1708] HAVERHILL SACKED . 243 

over against liim on the heights beyond. And this we 
take to have been his daily habit. 

Other garrisons lay to the north and south, that of 
Jonathan Emerson standing guard over the approach 
to the ridge from Little Eiver, those of Joseph and Na- 
thaniel Peaslee flanking it in the opposite direction. 
These simple defences, in a measure, cov- other 

ered the more compact part of the village. garrisons. 

In fact, nothing more could be done. Thi'ee or four 
soldiers were posted in each. A certain number also 
were quartered in the village itself, some houses being 
designated garrisons and some not. Major Turner, 
Captains Price and Gardner, all good officers, were in 
the command of the colony soldiers thus posted. 

Only the most sleepless vigilance could have prevent- 
ed what was going to happen, as in the present case 
the back of the village, so to speak, was turned to the 
enemy. 

On Sunday, August 29th, at daybreak, or the dusk just 
before dawn, the savages were discovered just entering 
the skirt of the village. Of all the days of the week, 
this one most favored just such a surprise, since, it 
being a day of rest, the drowsy villagers were still abed. 
In some unexplained Avay the outlying garrisons had 
been passed without giving any alarm. village 

One man only, who chanced to be abroad surprised, 

at that early hour, caught a glimpse of the assailants 
filing silently out of the forest, close upon him. Taking 
to his heels he shouted aloud the alarm, fired his gun, 
and ran for his life. 

It was too late. The marauders entered the village 
with him, whooping and yelling, like so many hell- 
hounds, at the complete success of their plans. At this 



244 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1708 

dreadful summons the inhabitants awoke. Smothered 
noises came from the houses. Presently a woman, 
bolder than the rest, threw open her door and ran for 
dear life toward the nearest garrison. A bullet was 
quicker, and the first victim lay bleeding on the ground. 
Then the assault became general. Frenchmen, daubed 
and painted to hide their detestable faces, loaded and 
fired, and cheered on their no more savage comrades to 
the work of slaughter. Some houses were weakly, some 
stoutly, defended. One party made for that of Benja- 
min Rolfe, minister of Haverhill, in which a few sol- 
diers were quartered. Acting on the impulse of the 
moment, Rolfe ran to the street door, to keep the sav- 
ages out. Finding the door securely fastened the as- 
sailants first discharged their guns into it, shattering 
Rolfe the wood ^ and wounding Rolfe where he 

'^•"^**- ' stood ; then bursting in, despatched the 
wounded man, brained Mrs. Rolfe with a tomahawk, 
and dashed out her infant's brains against the door- 
stone. Paralyzed by fear, the cowardly soldiers were 
slain while begging for mercy. The house was then 
ransacked from top to bottom. 

Two of Rolfe' s children were saved through the 
presence of mind of Hagar, a negress, who ran with 
Children them into the cellar, hid each one under a 

saved. large wash tub, and then concealed herself 

behind a barrel of meat.^ The marauders searched the 
cellar, drank milk from the pans, and even helped them- 

' The site of Rolfe's house is marked by a monument at Dustin Square. The door, 
pierced by balls, was afterward nailed up in the meeting-house porch, as a memorial of 
the event, and was burned in the fire that destroyed that hoime.—AUe7i. 

2 One afterward became the wife of Colonel Hatch, of Dorchester, Mass.; the other, 
Elizabeth, of the Rev. Samuel Checkley, Sr., of Boston. Their daughter became the 
wife of Samuel Adams, the patriot. 



1708] 



HAVERHILL SACKED 



245 



selves to meat from the barrel behind which the trem- 
bling negress was crouching, breathless with terror, with- 
out suspecting that anyone was concealed there. The 
poor fugitives were no doubt favored by the darkness, 
as well as the haste these brigands were in to be off 
to their bloody work again. Besides Hagar and the 
children, Anna Whittaker, who lived with the Kolfes, 




PBASLEE GARRISON, HAVERHILL, MASS. 



also escaped death by hiding behind an apple-chest 
kept under the stairs.^ 

What was true of one was true of all. The French 
contingent was quite as active in the house-to-house 
slaughter now going on as the savages themselves. 
Impious wretches ! that had said their prayers, em- 
braced each other, and commended their souls to God, 
just before bathing their hands in innocent blood.^ 



1 She also claimed to have saved Rolfe's children, 
tember 27, 1764. 
a Charlevoix, II., 326. 



-Massachusetts Gazette^ Sep- 



246 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1708 

Thomas Hartsliorne and his three sons were killed in 
the act of escaping from their dwelling. Mrs. Harts- 
horne secreted herself and her children in the cellar, 
closing the trap-door in the floor after them. An in- 
fant was left lying on a bed in the garret. Finding no 
one else, the child was quickly tossed out of the window 
without ceremony, but fortunately was only stunned, 
not killed, by the fall. The story goes that this babe 
was left in the garret for fear that its cries would be- 
tray the hiding-place of the others ! The trap-door 
escaped discovery. 

Of such sickening details does the storj^ of the sack- 
ing consist. Still more remarkable were the events 
happening at Captain Simon Wainwright's, on the 
hilltop. As the story has come down to us, the in- 
mates there were getting ready to make a stubborn 
resistance when a volley, fired into the house at close 
quarters, killed Wainwright on the spot.' One's cre- 
Mrs. Wain- duHty is Severely taxed to believe what fol- 
wright's escape, jo^yg^ jt ig said that upou her husband's 
fall, Mrs. Wainwright unbarred the door to the savages, 
who instantly crowded into the house, weapons in hand. 
With great presence of mind the wife of the man lying 
dead there before her, spoke kindly to his murderers, 
brought them food and promised to do whatsoever they 
should require of her. Astonished at such treatment, 
the intruders demanded nothing but money. Telling 
them it was in another room, the quick-witted woman 
left them as if to fetch it, but instead of doing so she 
seized the opportunity to fly with her children, one 
girl excepted, who was left behind. Enraged at the 

1 Palfbey erroneously identifies him with Colonel Francis Wainwright, late com- 
mander at Port Royal. 



1708] HAVERHILL SACKED 247 

trick played upon them, the savages set fire to the house 
after securing their prisoners.^ 

A still more dramatic incident,^ if we may believe 
tradition, took place at the house of a man named Swan. 
This man also had barred his door against the maraud- 
ers. The Indians first ran against it in a body, but 
on finding that it did not give way, one of them set his 
back against it, the better to exert his Mrs. swan's 
whole strength, while the others joined heroism. 

their efforts to his. From the inside. Swan and his 
wife opposed their strength to that of the besiegers, 
and a desperate tussle ensued between them. As a 
result the Indians succeeded in forcing the door partly 
open, and Swan gave himself up for lost, when his 
stout-hearted wife snatched up an iron spit, collected 
all her strength, and ran the foremost Indian through 
the body. This house was saved. 

In this manner the work of burning, pillage, and 
slaughter was going on with little check, when the dis- 
tant roll of drums and blast of trumpets warned the 
invaders that it was time to look to their retreat. By 
this time the soldiers, collected from the neighboring 
garrisons, were on the march to attack them. The vil- 
lage was immediately deserted. Before leaving, how- 
ever, the enemy had set fire to the meeting-house, but 
the flames were quickly extinguished. 

As the invaders retreated, the exasperated settlers 
rallied and hung on their rear. Before they could 
reach the shelter of the woods, they were Enemy 

furiously attacked by sixty or seventy retreat, 

men, who pressed them so closely that they were com- 

1 Mtbick : Chase's Haverhill, 222. 
' Ibid. 



248 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1708 

pelled to halt, throw down their phmder, and face their 
pursuers. After a sharp fight, in which they left nine 
of their number dead on the ground, superior force 
enabled them to shake off their assailants, who then 
gave up the pursuit.^ 

In this lively combat, two French officers, Chambly 
and Vercheres, were killed, and in the various encoun- 
ters of the day the French admit that eighteen of their 
number were wounded. Their accounts add that the 
monster Asacumbuit performed prodigies of valor with 
a sabre given him by Louis XIV.' 

Between thirty and forty persons were killed or taken 
prisoners in this raid. Sixteen of the slain were inhabi- 
tants of Haverhill. The soldiers were 

Loss of life. 

mostly from the towns below. Several 
prisoners were retaken during the fight outside the 
village. Others made their escape. On the whole the 
marauders had little cause for rejoicing. They were so 
hard pressed that they lost all their packs, with their 

1 Fbench accounts speak of this fight as an ambuscade, which was broken through 
and put to rout with great slaughter. Though it adds picturesqueness to the nan-ative, 
the English accounts make no mention whatever of such a foolhardy attempt upon an 
enemy, probably numbering four to one. 

2 As a mark of the royal favor for having, as he declared, slain one hundred and fifty 
of His Majesty's enemies with his own hand. How many were women and children he 
did not say. He was wounded in the foot in this raid, and very soon disappears from 
view. TJie New Engla7id Weekly Journal of June 19, 1727, has the following notice of 
his death : 

" We hear from the eastward that some days ago died there Old Escambuit, who 
was formerly the principal sagamore of the (now dispersed) tribe of Saco or Pig- 
wacket Indians. . . . He, Hercules-like, had a famous club, which he always carried 
with him, and on which he made ninety-eight notches, being the number of Englishmen 
that he had killed with his own hands. . . . He had formerly made discovery of a very 
fine silver mine up Saco River, but could never be pensuaded to tell whereabouts it was 
till very lately he was prevailed with to promise to carry an Englishman (who had 
several times been in quest of it) to the spot, and endeavored to do it. But upon tlieir 
way, when they got within a few miles of it, he fell sick, and in a short time died ; 
having first gave the Englishman all the directions he was able for the finding out of 
said mine, who is resolved to prosecute the matter, hoping still to make discovery 
of it." 



1708] HAVERHILL SACKED 249 

provisions, besides what booty had been secured. The 
losses on both sides were not far from equaL Had the 
pursuit been as vigorous as the attack was prompt and 
well-sustained, the whole party, in all likelihood, would 
have been scattered or taken. 



XXV 

INVASION OF CANADA FAILS; PORT ROYAL TAKEN 

April, 1709— October, 1710 

A CRISIS in the long struggle between New England 
and Canada was at hand. Early in the spring of 1709 
The queen's Dudley was notified that the queen was 
readiness. ready to aid the colonies in making one 

strong and united effort for the final overthrow of 
French power in America. Vetch, made a colonel for 
the purpose, came over from England, armed with in- 
structions to set forward the necessary preparations. In 
company with Vetch came Colonel Francis Nicholson,^ 
who had been Governor of Virginia, and more recently 
of Maryland, and was now seeking a new path to pre- 
ferment through the medium of the coming campaign. 
He was well known in New England, through his asso- 
ciation with Andros in the government of New York, 
some years before, but old prejudices seem to have lost 
their force, now that a common interest brought Puritan 
and Jacobite to join hands again at the sound of the 
Francis Nichoi> war-drum. Moreover, Nicholson was a 
^®"- man of far more statesmanlike mould 

than the canny Scot, Vetch, and carried far more weight 
into the enterprise now on foot than his shrewd, but 
vehement and irascible, associate. From this time 

' See a reference to him in the Hannah Dnstan affair. lie governed more provinces 
than any pnblic man of his day. Besides Virginia, New York, Maryland, and Nova 
Scotia, he was appointed to South Carolina, 1721, having been knighted the year before. 
He died at his lodgings in Old Bond Street, London, March 5, 1728. 



1709-1710] INVASION OF CANADA FAILS 251 

forth the fortunes of the two men were destined to be 
closely identified. 

More welcome news can hardly be imagined. If one- 
half of what Subercase wrote to the Minister on the 
subject was true, no sacrifice was too great on the part 
of the Bostonians, if it promised to put an end to the dep- 
redations committed upon their shipping and commerce. 
These depredations were chiefly the work of French 
corsairs, hailing either from Martinique or other West 
Indian ports. Speaking of these free- ^'■^"^^''^^r 
hooters Subercase goes on to say that ^*•"• 

"they have desolated Boston, having captured and de- 
stroyed thirty-five vessels. They have had during the 
whole year a scarcity of provisions, because our corsairs 
captured from them nearly six barques, the greater part 
of which were laden with cargoes." This refers to the 
year 1709. The governor adds that "the prizes taken 
by the freebooters caused a temporary plenty in the 
colony, and had put it in his power to make presents to 
the Indians." 

In brief the plan of operations was this : The cam- 
paign was to be opened by a combined attack upon 
Quebec and Montreal, both by sea and land. The fall 
of Canada would, of course, involve that of Nova Scotia, 
Newfoundland, and all the rest of the ^^^^^^^ 

French possessions on the continent, campagn. 

which would then come definitively under British rule 
once and forever. To this end Massachusetts and 
Ehode Island were to raise 1,200 men, who were to 
take part in the sea expedition, while Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania should furnish 
1 600 ^ for that directed against Montreal. 

\ THK assigned quotas were : New York, 800 ; Pennsylvania. 150 ; New Jersey. 300 ; 
Connecticut, 850 ; Rhode Island, 200. 



252 



THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1700-1710 



Dudley entered upon the work cut out for liim with 
alacrity. After seeing things in train here, Nicholson 
and Vetch went round to New York by water, calling 
at Newport and New Haven on their way, in order to 
hasten matters to the utmost. Finding everything 

working to their 
wishes, they contin- 
ued their voyage to 
New York. 

Here they were 
doomed to meet with 
disai^pointment. 
New York, indeed, 
no longer hesitated 
to cast off the tram- 
mels of a (/^iasz -neu- 
trality, and throw 
her whole weight in- 
to the contest.' Well 
she might. Subju- 
gated Canada would 
divert the Indian 
trade of the great 
Northw^est from 
Montreal and Que- 
bec, to Albany and New York. With New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania it was different. Kecently settled, largely 
Pennsylvania ^7 Quakers, wlio ablioiTcd the very name 
and New Jersey of war, the former colouy would vote only 
a money grant of X3,000, while the latter 
refused aid of any sort. The loss of men in this quarter 
was, however, made good, in part, by six hundred Iroquois 

1 As the treasury was empty, New York for the first time issued bills of credit. 




TEE TEE NEEN HO GA RON, EMPEROR OP THE 
SIX NATIONS. 



1709-1710] 



INVASION OP CANADA FAILS 



253 



warriors, whose wives and children were maintained at 
the public expense during the campaign. Nicholson was 
put in command of this force, reckoned at 1,500 men, 
which took up its line of march for Lake Army at 

Champlain, cutting roads and building Wood Creek, 
forts as it slowly advanced over ground destined to be- 
come the scene of far more momentous events in the 
future. At Wood Creek the army halted to wait for 
news of the sailing 
of the other branch 
of the expedition, 
before resuming its 
forward movement 
upon Montreal. 

Meanwhile, the 
transports and 
troops assembled at 
Boston lay waiting 
from May to Sep- 
tember, in daily ex- 
pectation of the ar- 
rival of the prom- 
ised squadron and 
regiments Royai aid 
out of *^"^- 

England. They wait- 
ed in vain. It was 
not until October 
that a ship arrived 
with the unwelcome news that the royal troops, des- 
tined for America, had been sent to Portugal instead. ^ 
Before the receipt of this truly exasperating intelli- 
gence, Nicholson had been compelled to break up his 




SAGA TEATH QUA PIETH TON, KING OF THE 
MAGUAS. 



2o4 



THE BORDER WARS 0^^ NEW EXGLAXD [1709-1710 



camp at Wood Creek on accovint of the sickly condition 
of his troops, who were dying off by scores from camp 
dysentery, contracted by drinking water reeking with 
the tilth of the camps. Decimated by disease, the enfee- 
bled force retraced 
its steps to Albany. 

Unwilling to throw 
away what it had 
cost so much time, 
trouble, and expense 
to get together, the 
New England gov- 
ernors met Nichol- 
son, Vetch, and 
Moody at Kehoboth, 
October 14th, to see 
what was to be done. 
It was unanimously 
decided to send the 
New England forces 
to attack Port Koyal, 
provided the queen's 
ships then at Boston 
and New York would 
co-operate. This be- 
ing refused, nothing remained but to disband the troops, 
settle the cost,^ and swallow the disappointment with 
the best grace possible under the circumstances. 

Nicholson immediately sailed for England to solicit 
aid for another attempt the next season. He was ably 
seconded by Peter Schuyler, who had conceived the 
shrewd idea of taking over to England some Mohawk 

1 Stated at £23,000 sterling ; reimbursed to the colonies by England. 




ECON OH KOAN, KING OF THE RIVER NATION. 



17Uy-1710] 



INVASION OF CANADA FAILS 



255 



chiefs, as a means of holding the wavering Iroquois 
faithful to the English, for that powerful confederacy 
now had a French, as well as an English, party among 
them. Schuyler accordingly sailed for Mohawks 

England with five Mohawks, one of whom '" England. 
died at sea. If Schuyler had counted upon making 
a sensation he Avas not disappointed. His dusky com- 
panions were the lions of the hour. They were shown 
about London, feast- 
ed, flattered, followed 
about by the common 
people wherever they 
went, and caressed 
by the nobility. They 
sat for their por- 
traits ^ to a Dutch 
artist. Honors per- 
mitted only to royal 
personages were paid 
them. The queen 
caused them to be 
clothed at her own 
expense by a promi- 
nent theatrical cos- 
tumer. Even liter- 
ary London, in the 
persons of Addison 
and Steele, bestirred 
itself in their behalf 

— all this to impress the tawny visitors with a due sense 
of the might of the British empire. As a fitting climax 




HO NEE TEATH TAN NO RON. 



1 The originals from which engravings in mezzotint were made, reproduced in 
recent works. 



256 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1709-1710 

they were given an audience by the queen herself, who 
graciously listened to the speech spoken for them en- 
treating her royal aid against France in Canada.^ 

Throughout the spring and summer small squads of 
skulking marauders spread distress and alarm in their 
track. Mehuman Hinsdale was captured for the second 
time at or near Deerfield. William Moody, Samuel 
Stevens, and two sons of Jeremiah Gilman were sur- 

Murder pi'lScd On the rOad three miles out of Ex- 

renewed. qIqj.^ ajid carried away into captivity. 

Moody was subsequently the victim of an adventure so 
remarkable as to be Avell worth narrating, if for no other 
reason than to keep alive the memory of what it meant 
in those days to fall into the hands of the savages. 

It seems that a party of ten Englishmen Avas return- 
ing from a successful scout, which had carried them as 
far into the enemy's territory as Fort La Motte, on the 
Richelieu Eiver. They were now making all speed 
homeward, travelling night and day to elude pursuit. 
Mr. Moody's It was uecessary to be constantly on the 
adventure. alert, as they were now following the 

route most frequented by war-parties going to or re- 
turning from the Connecticut Yalley ; and they were 
most anxious to rejoin six of their companions, who 
were waiting for them at the mouth of White River, 
with supplies. 

After paddling all night up the Onion River, the 
scouts left their canoes at the falls, shouldered their 
packs, and struck out across an elbow, formed by the 
windings of the stream, until they came to the river 
again at some distance higher up. 

While making a short halt here a canoe was seen 

1 The speech is given by Oldmixon. 



1709-1710] INVASION OF CANADA FAILS 257 

coming down the river. There were five persons in 
it. On a nearer approach four were seen to be Ind- 
ians, while the fifth was evidently a white man and a 
captive. AVhen the unsuspecting savages came with- 
in easy range, the scouts fired with so true an aim that 
two redskins were killed outright, one tumbled over, 
wounded, into the bottom of the canoe, while the fourth, 
upon witnessing the fate of his comrades, plunged head 
foremost into the river, and struck out lustily for the 
opposite shore. 

Leaving two or three men to take care of the swim- 
ming savage, when he should leave the water, the rest" 
followed the motions of the disabled canoe along the 
bank, as it drifted down the stream with the current, at 
the same time hallooing to the white man to bring the 
canoe to the shore. He replied that he could not do 
so, because the wounded savage would not let him. 
"Knock him in the head then! " shouted back Wright, 
the captain of the scouts. This the prisoner attempted 
to do with a hatchet, lying in the bottom of the canoe, 
but in the struggle which took place the canoe was 
overset, plunging both combatants into the water. 

The white man swam toward his friends, while the 
Indian made for the opposite bank, which he succeeded 
in reaching, wounded as he was, and was scrambling off 
into the bushes when seven well-aimed bullets j^inned 
him to the earth. 

Meanwhile, the captive was straining every nerve to 
reach the shore, but finding his strength leaving him, 
he lost heart when within a rod or two of the bank, and 
undoubtedly would have sunk to the bottom if one of 
the rangers had not ran to his assistance with a sap- 
ling, which the drowning man managed to grasp, and 
17 



258 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1709-1710 

was quickly drawn to the land. He proved to be Will- 
iam Moody, of Exeter. 

While attention was thus drawn to the captive's 
struggle for life and liberty, one of the scouts who was 
looking on from the bank above heard the snapping of 
dry sticks behind him. He gave one hurried look in 
the direction of the noise, and instantly shouted out 
the warning cry of " Indians ! Indians ! " The cry was 
scarce uttered when the scout received a charge of 
buckshot in the face. Another shot dropped Lieuten- 
ant Wells, as he was scrambling up the bank after his 
gun, left there when he went to Moody's assistance. 

In a few words Moody then told the panic-stricken 
rangers that the canoe he had just escaped from was 
only one of five, two of w^liich the rangers had missed 
by taking the cut-off, while two more w^ere still above 
them. Upon hearing the guns the party below had in- 
stantly turned back, taking to the woods for a cover, and 
it was their fire which had just disabled two of the 
rangers' best men. Dropping shots from the opposite 
bank also told the rangers that the party from above 
had now come to the aid of their companions. 

Upon finding themselves thus caught betw^een two 
fires, the rangers scattered in a panic, every man for 
himself, leaving poor Moody to his fate. Seven suc- 
ceeded in reaching the rendezvous safely. The eighth 
man, John Burt, of Northampton, w^as never heard from. 

Moody's tragic end was subsequently learned from 
some fellow-captives, on their return to the settlements. 
Upon being so suddenly abandoned by his rescuers he 
gave himself up for lost. Too feeble of body either to 
fly or resist, he was driven to choose between starva- 
tion or captivity, and nerved by the hope of saving his 



1709-1710] PORT ROYAL TAKEN 259 

life, lie called out to the savages from his place of con- 
cealment to come and take him. The wretched man 
was quickly secured, taken across the river, tied to a 
stake and burned alive, in revenge for .the losses these 
miscreants had sustained in their late conflict with the 
scouts.^ 

In June Deerfield was again attacked by a body of 
French and Indians, estimated at one hundred and 
eighty, led by one of the Eouvilles ; but this time the 
inhabitants, many of whom had so lately returned from 
captivity, met the attack with steadiness, and repulsed 
it with the loss of only one man killed and three or four 
wounded. In September, at Wells, a soldier was killed 
and another taken while passing between the garrisons. 

Nicholson came back from England in the summer of 
1710 with a small squadron, which, upon being joined 
by other ships, then cruising in American waters, sailed 
for Port Koyal, where so many reputations had been 
lost. On board this fleet there was a regiment of royal 
marines, and four of provincial troops, or about 2,000 
men in all. Captain Martin of the Dragon was commo- 
dore of the fleet ; Nicholson commanded the land forces, 
with Yetch acting as his chief-of-staff. The four pro- 
vincial battalions were under Colonels Hobby and 
Tailer, of Massachusetts, Colonel Whiting, of Connecti- 
cut, and Colonel Walton, of New Hampshire. Paul 
Mascarene, afterward Governor of Nova Scotia, com- 
manded one of Walton's companies. Besides these, 
there was a company of Iroquois Indians attached to 
the expedition, under the orders of John Livingston, 
who held the nominal rank of major of scouts. 

' Captain Benjamin Weight's account, abridged by Penhallow, printed in full in 
Sheldon's History of Deerfield. 



260 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1709-1710 

To repel this well-equijjped force Subercase,^ the 
French commandant, could muster only two hundred 
and sixty men, the greater part of whom he was afraid 
to trust outside the fort for fear of their deserting. The 
ramparts were in a dilapidated condition, so that from 
the first there was little hope of making a successful 
defence. Indeed, soon after the arrival of the English 
fleet at the entrance of the basin, Subercase had written 
to the Minister, exposing his weak condition, and ad- 
mitting that if the garrison received no succor, there 
was " every reason to fear something fatal." 

As seven or eight deserters had stolen off on board 
the English fleet on its arrival, the besiegers were no 
doubt well informed of these facts, and indeed went 
about their work in a way to show that the result was, 
to all intents, a foregone conclusion. Little or no op- 
position was offered to their landing, although in march- 
ing up toward the fort a few men were killed by the 
inhabitants, wdio fired on the soldiers from their houses 
and then took to their heels. Colonel Vetch with five 
hundred men so lined the shore opposite to the fort with 
his skirmishers as to cover the landing of the cannon 
and ammunition. By drifting up and back with the tide 
the English bomb-vessel was able to throw her shells 
Port Royal i^to the fort, and to draw its fire, thus 

^^^n. rendering material service to the be- 

siegers in throwing up their batteries. The fleet had 
cast anchor in the basin on September 24th. On Oc- 
tober 1st the besiegers opened fire from three breaching 

1 Subercase was informed by prisoners that the Bostonians were again planning the 
conquest of Acadia and trying to induce Scotchmen to take an interest in it through 
Vetch, who had gone to England for that purpose. Mountains of gold were expected 
from the enterprise. Among other projects was one to seize on La Heve, and make a 
post there.— Letter to the Minister. 



1709-1710] PORT ROYAL TAKEN 261 

batteries at only one liiinclred yards' distance. It Avas 
sharply returned from the fort. The English now be- 
ing able to reduce it, at will, to a heap of rubbish, a 
demand for its surrender was complied with as soon as 
made. Articles of capitulation were signed on the fol- 
lowing day. Indeed, in the presence of such an over- 
whelming force, Subercase had no choice but to submit, 
yet, with a soldier's instinct, had fought to save his 
reputation. Strangely enough, his former successful 
defence was meanly used to convict him of a want of 
courage in this instance.^ 

A garrison of marines was left in the fort, with Col- 
onel Yetch as military commandant, and the place, now 
definitely passed under the English flag, was named 
Annapolis Royal in honor of the reigning princess. 

By the terms of the capitulation only such inhab- 
itants as lived within three English miles of the fort 
were free to go or stay in their old homes upon taking 
the oath of allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain. 
Four hundred and eighty-one persons were embraced 
in this provision. All others were treated as prisoners 
at discretion, or as subject to such penalties as the 
conquerors might see fit to impose. 

It will be remembered that Church had threatened 
to retaliate the savage cruelties at Deerfield upon the 
heads of the Acadians. The threat had fallen upon 
deaf ears. But Nicholson conceived himself now^ in a 
position to enforce it. With this end in view Living- 
ston and St. Castin ^ were sent off overland to Quebec 

1 Nicholson's Journal of the expedition, with many other documents relating to the 
siege, is in the Xova Scotia Historical Collections, Vol. I. 

2 Subercase before this had warmly recommended St. Cnstin to the Minister on 
accoiint of his services during the late siege. He declared that St. Castin was kept out 
of his estate in France under pretence of illegitimacy, although he had full evidence of 



262 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1700-1710 

to inform Vaudreuil that Acadia had fallen into Eng- 
lish hands. Livingston was further to notify him that 
if the indiscriminate massacre of innocent women and 
children by his hired cut-throats was persisted in, then 
the Acadians would be treated in a like manner. It 
was hardly worth while making a threat which it is 
more than doubtful if Nicholson ever meant to put in 
execution. 

After undergoing unheard-of hardships in crossing 
the wilderness at that inclement season of the year, 
the envoys reached Quebec in a starving condition.^ 
Vaudreuil, probably to gain time, despatched his an- 
swer to Boston by the hands of two of his best partisan 
officers, Eouville and Dupuis, who Avere secretly in- 
structed to thoroughly reconnoitre the country passed 
through. In rejAj to Nicholson's threats, Vaudreuil 
simply said that if they were carried into effect he 
should be compelled to do the like by all the English 
in his hands. And this was all the satisfaction to be 
had for the attempt to frighten Vaudreuil. 

his heirship. " This poor boy has to do with the first chicanier of Europe, and lieuten- 
ant-general of the town of Oleron, in Bearne, who for long years enjoys this property." 
—Subercase to the Minister. 
^ See account in Penhallow. 



XXVI 

MORE INDIAN DEPREDATIONS 

June, 1710— April, 1711 

The operations against Port Eoyafclid not seem in 
the least to check the wanton destruction of life on the 
frontiers. On the contrary, the impression that most 
of the fighting men were away with the expedition 
seemed to make the savages bolder than ever. 

Much the most notable victim of the year was Colonel 
Winthrop Hilton,^ of Exeter, whom the Indians bitterly 
hated on account of his activity in hunt- coionei Hilton 
ing them down, and who had long been ^'^'"• 

a tower of strength to the distressed frontier. Hilton 
had felled a number of mast-trees^ in the forests of 
what is now Epping, and was busily engaged with his 
workmen about them, when the savages stole upon 
them unperceived, shot Hilton and two more dead on 
the spot, and captured two others. The rest escaped. 
On the next day the bodies of the slain were found 
shockingly mangled, that of Hilton being scalped and^ 
a lance left sticking in his breast. The murderers had 
buried themselves in the woods. This affair took place 
on June 23d. 

On the same day the road in Kingston was ambushed, 
probably by the same gang, and as some of the towns- 

1 Hilton was the kinsman of both Governors Dudley and Winthrop. 

2 There were mast-paths cut for the purpose of hauling out the timber to tide- water. 



264 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1 710-1 7U 

people were passing over it, Samuel AVinslow and 
Samuel Huntoon were killed; and Philip Huntoon and 
Jacob Gilnian carried off to Canada. 

Emboldened by these successes, the elated savages 
showed themselves in the open road at Exeter, where 
four children were seized while at their play. They also 
took John Wedgewood, and killed John Magoon on the 
very spot where he had dreamed that he should meet his 
death. David Garland w'as also slain at Dover, wiiile 
returning home from public worship. Waterbury and 
Simsbury, two exposed frontier towns in southwest- 
ern Connecticut, had several inhabitants killed at this 
time. The active and ubiquitous enemy then struck 
swift blows at Marlborough and Brookfield, killing six 
persons there, and also shooting down the post-rider as 
he was going to Hadley. They or their confederates 
Captain Tyng then tumcd back to the Merrimac, in search 
»'*•"• of fresh victims, thus throwing their pur- 

suers off the scent; and here, between Concord and 
Groton, they mortally wounded Captain John Tyng, 
one of the best and bravest partisan leaders of this w^ar. 

Thus the already long death-list was being swelled 
on all sides at once. Even poor, poverty-stricken 
Maine could not escape. At Winter Harbor a w^oman 
was slain and two men taken prisoners, one of whom, 
Pendleton Fletcher, had already been thrice a captive. 
Fortunately, his comrades of the garrison succeeded in 
redeeming him at this time. A week later, three more 
were killed and six carried away from Saco settle- 
ments.^ 

As usual, the English were powerless to prevent these 

1 Hutchinson says that Johnson Harmon, a noted partisan in the next war, was 
one of them. 



1710-1711] MORE INDIAN DEPREDATIONS 266 

outrages. Nevertheless, it was necessary to do some- 
thing to silence the cries of the people. Therefore, in 
the autumn, when the savages were in the habit of visit- 
ing the clam-banks to get their winter supply of food. 
Colonel Walton made a scout along the Maine coast, 
looking sharply out for stray parties of clam-gatherers. 
None were met with, however, until he got to the 
Kennebec, all having withdrawn to a safe distance after 
the late raid, as their custom was. But while en- 
camped upon an island here, his smoke waiton's 
decoyed a small party of savages into his ^*^"*- 
hands. One of the prisoners proved to be a head chief 
of the Norridgewocks, who, upon finding himself en- 
trapped, maintained to the last a truly Spartan stoicism, 
steadily refusing to answer all questions put to him, 
and laughing scornfully in the faces of his enemies 
when threatened with death. Finding him stubborn, 
Walton turned him over to his friendly Indians, who 
quickly despatched him. His squaw proved more 
tractable. She disclosed the whereabouts of more of 
their people, some of whom were discovered and slain. 

As insignificant as these reprisals may seem they 
were, nevertheless, hailed with exultation by the whites 
— a most telling commentary upon the disparity of ends 
to means in this species of warfare. 

At times, however, the Indians themselves seem to 
have realized that in the long run the battle would go 
against them. An incident, happening at Saco, shows 
this to have been the case. It chanced that Corporal 
Ayres, of the Winter Harbor garrison, fell into their 
hands. His captors released him without hurt or in- 
sult, and very shortly came to the garrison themselves 
with a flag, professing a strong desire for peace. This, 



266 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1710-1711 

no doubfc;, was the sincere wish of the old men. But the 
young men, like wolves maddened by the taste of 
blood, could not be controlled, and were only waiting 
for the coming of spring to be at their bloody work 
again. Four men were slain at Dover while at work 
in the fields ; one was killed and one wounded at York, 
the wounded man succeeding in getting into the garri- 
son after being knocked down and scalped ; two more 
were killed at Wells (April 29th) while planting corn ; 
after that John Church was slain at Dover, and the 
people there were waylaid while going home from meet- 
ing, John Horn being wounded, and Humphrey Foss 
taken, though soon rescued by the determined bravery 
of Lieutenant Heard. 

Upon these alarms Colonel Walton made another 
fruitless march to Winnipesaukee and Ossipee Ponds, 
finding only a few deserted wigwams at either place. 



♦ 



xxYH 

THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 

August 22, 1711 

Meanwhile the indefatigable Colonel Nicholson, who 
had gone to England immediately after the taking of 
Port Eoyal, the more effectually to urge upon the min- 
istry a determined effort for the subjugation of Canada, 
was now returning successful from that mission. As 
this result had been rather hoped for than conquest 

expected, it is necessary to explain just of Canada. 

how it had come about. It is explained by the fact 
that in 1710 the Whig ministers were turned out of 
office, and a Tory cabinet brought in. Even the great 
Marlborough found himself out of favor at Court. 
Changes so sweeping are always significant of a change 
of policy. The war went on, but secret negotiations 
were begun with France looking to peace. It was ar- 
gued that for nine years England had been fighting to 
cripple the power of the House of Bourbon, only to 
augment that of the House of Austria. Even Gibral- 
tar, though subsequently ceded to Great Tories 
Britain, had been captured for the House *" power, 
of Austria. The new ministry, therefore, had adopted 
a new line of policy, by which England should gain 
something for herself, to which her allies could lay no 
claim, should settle the question of dominion in the 
New World for all time, and finish the war with such a 



268 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1711 

brilliant feat of arms as should lift the ministry to the 
very crest of the wave of popular favor. ^ 

Two things contributed to mask the design. In the 
first place, the eyes of the allied powers were fixed upon 
the continent of Europe, where every move was closely 
watched, and in the next, it was wholly improbable that 
France should suspect England of playing so deep a 
game, while professing a sincere desire for peace. Even 
so consummate a master of the art of duplicity as Louis 
himself must have been staggered when his eyes were 
opened to the patent fact that he had been so complete- 
ly overreached. 

To carry out this grand design, a powerful land and 
naval force was being got ready with all possible de- 
spatch, the greatest secrecy being observed as to its 
destination.^ Sir Hovenden Walker was put in com- 
secret prep- mand of the fleet and Brigadier John Hill 
arations. ^f |.]-^g army. Of the former little is known 

apart from his connection with this disastrous enter- 
prise ; and of the latter not much more than that he 
went by the nickname of " honest Jack Hill " among his 
boon companions, and that he was a brother to Mrs. 
Masham, who, in the general overturning, had succeed- 
ed the Duchess of Marlborough as the queen's favorite. 
Hill's chief recommendation for this command seems to 
have been hatred for the Churchills, as the duke had 
no sooner pronounced him good for nothing, and re- 
fused him a colonelcy, than the queen pensioned him 
and made him a brigadier. 

' Palfrey (IV., 280-87) says this expedition was the favorite plan of Secretary 
St. John, afterward Lord Bolingbroke. 

2 St. John writes to Governor Hunter, of New York, that no one was informed of it 
except the queen, himself, and his colleague, Lord Dartmouth. Those who were to 
engage iu it were given to understand that its destination was the south of France. 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 

On June 8th, while the council was in session at 
Boston, discussing matters of routine, the booming of 
cannon at the castle announced some unlooked-for ar- 
rival from sea. The sitting was immediately broken 
up by the noise of drums in the streets, calling the 
town regiment to arms, if an enemy to repel his attack, 
if a friend to show him the proper honors. It proved 
to be Colonel Nicholson, bringing the queen's orders 
for the immediate levying of the land and naval forces 
of the colonies as far south as Pennsylvania. Better 
still, he announced the speedy arrival of the most for- 
midable armament ever despatched to these shores, 
destined to lay siege to Quebec, while he himself, with 
the land forces, chiefly raised outside of New England, 
should be engaged in attacking Montreal, at the other 
extremity of the line. This sagacious combination, 
first devised by some plain colonists in the time of Sir 
William Phips, now neAvly renovated and set forth by 
the queen's advisers, would compel a like division of 
the enemy's forces to meet it, and it being reckoned 
that the invaders would still be the stronger at each 
point, little doubt was felt of the result. The main 
difliculty lay in getting the English forces up to within 
striking distance, and, by parity of reasoning, here also 
lay the strength of the defence. 

Thus, at one powerful blow, the colonies were to be 
fprever freed from all fears for the future. Certainly 
the prospect set before the long-suffering people of 
New England was brilliant indeed ; for, with the down- 
fall of French dominion, all the rubbish of Indian 
alliances, piratical depredations, contraband trade, and 
the like, would disappear like water spilled on the 
ground. Not the least gratifying result, reached by so 



270 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND [1711 

compreliensive a plan, was the bringing of New York 
into line with New England, for, no longer ago than 
March, Massachusetts had complained to Lord Dart- 
mouth of the criminal neutrality maintained by New 
York toward the French Indians. Indeed, the selfish 
policy pursued by that province in the past had in turn 
offended, disgusted, and well-nigh alienated the still 
powerful Iroquois, who, from being eager to take up the 
hatchet against the French, as they once were, had 
grown indifferent or worse in most parts of the con- 
federacy. 

As her part in this grand undertaking. New England 
was called upon to raise two regiments. Some dissatis- 
summons to faction was felt with the appointment of 
arms. Yetch to Command them, as he was still 

in bad odor with the provincial authorities and peoj)le, 
on account of former sharp practices of his, but what 
would have been resented at another time as a slight 
put upon them, now passed off without making any stir. 
Yet, considering that Yetch cordially hated the Bos- 
tonians, this self-restraint on their part was unusual. 

On the 24tli ^ the fleet itself entered the harbor un- 
der a press of sail. Not having looked for it nearly so 
soon, the authorities were taken somewhat by surprise. 
Dudley had gone with Nicholson to attend the meeting 
of governors called at New London. The assembly, 
however, was in session, and with the council it pre- 
pared to welcome the distinguished visitors in a suitable 
manner. 

It was just said that the armament was by far the most 
formidable that had ever crossed the Atlantic under the 
English flag. Little wonder, then, that the astonished 

1 This was Sunday. 



i 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 271 

Bostonians should have believed it invincible. In all 
there were fifteen ships-of-war, first-rates and frigates, 
carrying nine hundred guns and manned The fleet and 
by more than five thousand seamen.^ ^'■"y- 

There were forty transports and six store-ships, having 
on board seven battalions of Marlborough's veterans, 
mostly withdrawn from the Netherlands to take part in 
this expedition, besides a battalion of marines, and a 
fine train of artillery, complete even to the horses be- 
longing to it.^ 

Upon landing, Admiral Walker and Brigadier Hill 
were escorted to the town-house by the local militia, 
and warmly congratulated upon their safe waikerand 
arrival. The admiral immediately sent Hiii honored, 
for John Nelson, who will be remembered for his dar- 
ing and successful efforts to thwart Frontenac's plans, 
while* a prisoner at Quebec. No man in New England 
was better able to give an intelligent idea of the strength 
and weaknesses of Quebec, although Vetch was in the 
habit of boasting that he knew more about Canada than 
the Canadians themselves. Quebec now was by no 
means, however, the Quebec of the last war. 

The royal troops were at once landed and went into 
camp on Noddle's Island,^ opposite the town, where 
they had a most excellent chance to re- campat 

cruit from the effects of their late voyage, Boston, 

and prepare for the unexpected work of the new. This 

1 For a list of these see Boston News Letter, No. 379. 

^ The following regiments were employed, viz.: Kirke's, afterward 2d Foot ; The 
Queen's, afterward 4th Foot (King's Own) ; Hill's, afterward 11th Foot ; Desney's, after- 
ward 36th Foot ; Windress's, afterward 37th Foot ; Clayton's, disbanded in 1712 ; Kane's, 
disbanded in 1713 ; Churchill's Marines, and King's Artillery. To these were added 
the Marines at Annapolis. The strength of the marching regiments was 815 officers 
and men, increased in some cases to 900. 

3 Now East Boston. 



272 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1711 

military camp, thus transferred from the fields of Marl- 
borough's fame, numbered as many men, if not more, 
than Boston itself, and no doubt furnished an object 
lesson long remembered by all who had perhaps seen 
something of the hardships, but little of the " pomp and 
circumstance," of war. 

Dudley having returned from New London on the 
27th, a conference took place between him and the ad- 
miral on the next day, during which Walker sharply 
complained of the merchants for ofi'ering no more than 
twenty per cent, for exchange, and ended by threaten- 
ing " to be gone somewhere else with the forces." 

Councillor Sewall, who was present, remarks that 
when the conference broke up, "the governor would 
make the general goe out before him, though he much 
resisted it." It is presumed that this little breeze soon 
blew over, as on the following daj^ the admiral, g^eral, 
field-officers, and several of the sea-captains dined with 
the governor at Roxbury.^ 

After the exchange of formal civilities was over, the 
serious business of the hour was taken in hand. It 
now transpired that in their impatience to get the fleet 
off before its destination should be discovered, the min- 
isters had come very near defeating the whole enter- 
prise at its birth. It was ignorantly assumed by those 
in the secret that Boston could of course furnish sub- 
Trouble sistence for the royal army for ten weeks, 
begins. Qq i\^q commandcrs simply had been in- 
structed to procure it there. Everybody w^as aghast at a 
proposal so absurd on its face, and to many it looked like 
a scurvy attempt to throw the responsibility for failure 
upon them. This, of course, was equally absurd. It 

1 " June 29th, Governor treats the general.'"— Sewall Papers. 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 273 

was not at all surprising then that only one merchant 
could be found in the town willing to undertake the 
truly formidable task of victualling the fleet at so late a 
day and without one hour's previous notice. This was 
Andrew Faneuil, uncle to the builder of Faneuil Hall. 
But for his energy and pluck the expedition must cer- 
tainly have suffered shipwreck then and there. 

The extraordinary demand immediately doubled the 
price of everything wanted. This advance was met by 
an act of the General Court fixing prices on the basis 
of former values. The greedy merchants retaliated by 
shutting up their shops or removing their stocks to 
places of concealment. To counteract this an order 
quickly passed authorizing the seizure of provisions 
wherever found, and giving the searching very like 

officers full power to break into any man's Martial law. 
premises if resisted. This high-handed proceeding had 
the desired effect. Provisions were brought from their 
hiding-places. The merchants took what was offered 
them, though not without grumbling at losing so fair 
a chance of making their fortunes. And it cannot be 
denied that in their zeal for the good of the service the 
provincial authorities had stretched their powers to the 
danger point. 

The same thing was true with regard to wages. An 
embargo was declared on July 7th, both to secure sailors 
for the expedition and to prevent news of it from get- 
ting abroad. Following on the heels of this came an 
order to impress all bakers, brewers, coopers, and other 
artisans, who could not or would not supply the public 
at the stated prices. It seems, however, that the in- 
liabitants could not all at once get over their traditional 
and habitual reverence for the Sabbath, orders or no 
18 



274 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1711 

orders ; for Colonel King notes in his journal ^ that 
on that day nobody would do any work, although the 
troops were in want of bread. 

It was much less surprising to find it also taken for 
granted that experienced pilots could be secured at 
short notice. As a matter of fact, however, the number 
of seamen in New England acquainted with the rather 
intricate navigation of the St. Lawrence might be count- 
ed on one's fingers. It is true that Vetch had been to 
Quebec some years before in a small craft and had then 
taken certain soundings of the river ; so had Captain 
John Bonner,'^ but with rare exceptions the river had 
remained a mare clausum to the English for twenty 
years past. This difficulty also was overcome by the 
impressment of several shipmasters, Bonner included, 
who were known to have some knowledge, more or 
less, of the dreaded river of Canada. 

This done, a new source of irritation was found in the 
frequent desertions from the army and fleet, which the 
inhabitants were charged Avith aiding and abetting. The 
admiral stormed and fumed. He angrily demanded of 
Dudley that these losses should be made good by a re- 
sort to an impressment, but Dudley knew better than to 
attempt such a thing himself, and the admiral Avisely 
refrained from doing what wholly exceeded his powers. 
A law, however, was promptly passed imposing a penalty 
of <£50 for harboring deserters, with a summary process 
for bringing the offenders to trial. It is only just to 
say that the people had so patiently borne Avith all the 

1 British Colonial Papers. But see what Cotton Mather has to say, later on. 

' " When thoy (the French) were promising themselves to draw away the English to 
Popery, news came that an English brigantine was coming np ; and y* ye hon. Saml. 
Appleton, Esq., was coming ambassador to fetch off the captives, and Capt. John Bon- 
ner with him."— r/ie Redeemed Captive. 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 275 

burdens imposed upon them by the queen, which they 
felt were quite enough, but also with these unlooked- 
for exactions of the royal officers, simply because they 
realized of what vast importance the undertaking was 
to their own future welfare. 

At another time Dudley would have thought that he 
had troubles enough of his own, and to spare, without 
being burdened with so many complicated Dudley's di= 
evils not of his creating, but laid at his lemma. 

door all the same. He had his two regiments to raise, 
transports to provide, and supplies to purchase, with a 
market already swept bare of everything to supply the 
royal forces. (In fact, the Bostonians were eating salted 
meats in order that the troops might have fresh.) There 
was no money. To tide over the emergency X40,000 in 
bills of credit were issued. Two full regiments were 
raised ^ and put under the command of Colonels Vetch 
and Walton, Vetch having come from Annapolis for 
that purpose, thus bringing the total land forces up to 
nearly, if not quite, 7,000 men. 

Keady at last, the combined fleet set sail on July 
30th, after a detention of only five weeks in port. The 
superb aj)pearance of this truly formidable 
armada, as ship after ship spread its canvas 
to the breeze, gave rise to the most confident anticipa- 
tions of success ; yet in view of the domineering con- 
duct of its officers it may well be doubted whether its 
arrival or departure was hailed with the more pleasure. 

The fleet put in at Gaspe on August 18th on account 
of contrary winds. On the 20th it got under way 
again, the admiral having now on board the flag-ship a 

» Of the 1,500 provincials, Massachusetts furnished l.lfiO, New Hampshire 100, and 
Rhode Island the rest. 



276 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND [1711 

French pilot, called Paradis, picked up by one of the 
cruisers sent out in advance to prevent news of the 
iieet from going to Quebec before it. Vetch, all impa- 
Deiay at ticiicc, was in a constant fret over the dila- 

Gaspe. tory motlous of the admiral in not standing 

on into the river, when the wind was favorable, which 
course, Yetch did not hesitate to say, would have pre- 
vented what afterward happened. But Walker charged 
the delay, as Vetch contends, to the timidity of Paddon, 
his captain, and of " Old Bonner," his pilot, about weath- 
ering the shoals of Anticosti. 

Nothing material occurred on the two following days. 
Some of the vessels had been late in coming out of 
Gaspe, and had fallen astern. All, however, had cleared 
Anticosti, but were making very little headway in con- 
Night of Au= sequence of light winds and a heavy sea. 
gust32d. On the afternoon of the 22d the wind 

worked round to the east or east-southeast, and blew 
fresh, bringing with it a thick fog. There being no land 
in sight, from which to judge of the position of the fleet, 
with every pros23ect of a dirty night before them, by the 
admiral's orders the ships were hove to, heads to the 
south, in the expectation that they would thus ride out 
the night at a safe distance from shore. In plain words, 
while slowly jogging to windward they were left to drift 
to leeward. To anchor in a hundred fathoms was, of 
course, out of the question. 

Prom this point, up to which they agree fairly well, 
the various accounts are so conflicting that any attempt 
to reconcile them would be folly. One thing is clear : 
No man in his senses would have handled the fleet in 
that manner if he had not supposed the land many 
leagues under his lee. 



t 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 277 

Darkness enveloped the fleet which was buffeting the 
rising gale in the way just pointed out, much scattered, 
and with a growing uneasiness among the officers quite 
natural to navigators sailing without guide or land- 
mark.i 

The admiral's account of what fell under his own ob- 
servation is sufficiently graphic. He was just turning 
in for the night when Paddon, the captain of the Edgar, 
came down to say that land was in sight. Supposing it 
to be the south shore, Walker merely ordered the signal 
made to steer in the opposite direction, and then went 
to bed. Shortly after. Captain Goddard, Breakers 

of the army, at the solicitation of the ^**^"^- 

French pilot, rushed into the cabin in great agitation 
and begged of the admiral at least to come on deck, 
and see for himself ; but Walker, annoyed at the inter- 
ference of a landsman, only laughed at his fears and 
refused to stir. A second time Goddard came down 
exclaiming, " For God's sake come on deck or we shall 
all be lost ! I see breakers all around us." " Putting on 
my gown and slippers," says the admiral, "I found 
what he told me to be true ; but still I could see no 
land to leeward." Just then the moon broke through 
the mist and showed him his mistake. Under his in- 
structions the whole fleet was blindly rushing on to its 
destruction. 

It was midnight, or later, when the alarm was given 
that the ships were among the breakers. All was in- 
stantly confusion, terror, and dismay. Signal guns 
boomed dismally in the darkness. High above the 

» The admiral laid the blame of this fatal manoeuvre upon the pilots, who, to a man, 
flatly denied having given any such advice. The charts show the fleet at this time 
to have been actually embayed by the southerly trend of the north shore. 



278 



THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 



[1711 




Pftnlecosl-^ 







(3> 



(S)rMesMont5Pe]c>S 



PLACE OF THE WRECK. 



shouts of the living rose the drowning shrieks of hun- 
dreds of miserable wretches, as one ship after another 
Ships go crashed bodily upon the hidden rocks of 

ashore. ^j^^ low-ljing Egg Islands. When it was 

all over, eight transports were seen to have been lost 
and not far from a thousand persons had perished. 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 279 

Bad as this was, the woiider is that any escaped to 
tell the tale. But warned by the signal guns fired by 
the ships that had struck, some captains wore ship in 
time to go clear of the rocks, while others, upon finding 
themselves actually among the breakers, Narrow 

let go their anchors as a last resort and escapes, 

were saved by a lucky shift of wind from the very jaws 
of destruction. Among others, the flag-ship herself was 
caught in this perilous plight, from Avhich she only es- 
caped by cutting her cables and crowding on all sail. 

The next day was spent in rescuing such of the ship- 
wrecked soldiers and sailors as had survived that dread- 
ful night. The number saved fell only one short of 
five hundred, but fully nine hundred more lay stretched 
along the inhospitable shore, victims to incompetency, 
obstinacy, or neglect. ^ 

On the 25th a council of war was held on board the 
Windsor, at which it was resolved not to make any fur- 
ther attempt to ascend the river. The admiral plainly 
showed that he was still laboring under the depressing 
impressions left on his mind by the late disaster. Yet 
none of the fighting ships had sustained any injury 
worth mentioning, while the land forces were still 
strong enough to give a good account of themselves. 
Though crippled, the fleet was by no means disabled. 
A commander with the spirit of a Nelson or a Wolfe 

1 The Queen's regiment, afterward the King's Own, lost two hundred and nineteen 
officers and men and twenty women. These were probably the troops Charlevoix refers 
to as the queen's guards, etc. Captain Laurence Armstrong, of Windress's regiment, 
afterward Lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, escaped with the loss of his clothes, 
also his own and his company's baggage and arms. Charlevoix makes the number 
of drowned 3,000, evidently mere guesswork, as fully six weeks elapsed before the 
disaster was known at Quebec. More or less accurate returns were made of the troops 
lost, but not of the shipwrecked crews. 'Only one of the New England transports went 
ashore, but without loss of life. 



280 



THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND 



[1711 



would have met the crisis differently. But Walker 
and Hill flinched from it. In vain Vetch urged the 
admiral to recall his decision. A way of retreat not 
absolutely disgraceful 
was quickly seized 
upon, defeat confessed, 



t 




SCHUYLER AND THE INDIAN SCOUTS. 



and the great fleet steered for Spanish River, now Syd- 
ney, in Cape Breton, and thence for England, after 
seeing the colonial vessels safe on their own coast. 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 281 

Word was immediately sent to Nicholson, who, with 
the prospect of having all Canada upon his hands, had 
no choice but to break camp and disband Fleet turns 

his forces, in the deepest mortification at *»*<^'^- 

seeing his really great efforts twice brought to naught 
before he could even strike a single blow. 

Upon New England news of the disaster fell with 
stunning effect. Success, full and ample, had been 
looked for, not defeat. Looked at in any way it was 
realized that all hope of the conquest of Canada was 
now at an end for years to come, if not forever. From 
the attitude of the commanders all along there w^ere 
Avell-grounded fears that New England, and particularly 
Boston, would be made the scapegoat of Effects of 

the affair in order to shield themselves. failure. 

As usual, intense discouragement gave rise to a season 
of rigid self-examination by those pious souls who saw 
only in this signal overthrow the manifest anger of God 
for the sins of the worldly minded among them. In 
esjDCcial, Cotton Mather loudly bewails the decay of true 
piety as inviting the divine wrath. " Have not burdens 
been carried through the streets on the Sabbath Day ? " 
he pointedly asks his congregation of merchants, ship- 
wrights, and petty tradesmen. " Have not bakers, car- 
penters, and other tradesmen been employed in servile 
works on the Sabbath Day ? " 

AVith better reason, since they themselves had no 
hand in bringing it about, the Canadians also attrib- 
uted their escape to " a Providence who in a singular 
manner watched OA^er them, and who, not joy i„ 

content with delivering them from the Canada. 

greatest danger which the colony had ever run, had act- 
ually enriched it with the spoils of an enemy it had not 



282 THE BORDER WARS^F NEW ENGLAND [1711 

even had the trouble to vanquish."^ Solemn masses 
were said, and votive offerings made at the shrine of 
Notre Dame de Yictoires. 

Strangely enough the earliest intelligence of the dis- 
aster reached Quebec by way of Albany, after Nichol- 
son's retreat to that place. It was not until the middle 
of October that two French ships arrived there from 
sea, bringing news that no enemy had been seen in 
coming up the river. These tidings were presently con- 
vestiges of the firmed direct from the scene of the wreck, 
wreck. which was reported strewn Avith corpses, 

lying in heaps among the wreckage of all sorts cast up 
by the waves. Wedged firmly in the rocks of the Egg 
Islands lay the stranded hulks that had borne them 
to their death, slowly dropping to pieces. Superstition 
had already fixed itself upon the scene of desolation. 
Mysterious lights, dancing over the water, were said to 
have heralded the disaster, and are, it is averred, still 
to be seen on the anniversary of its occurrence. 

A great deal of plunder was secured from the wrecks. 
Among other things found there was a parcel of proc- 
lamations, which Hill had got printed at Boston, in 
bad French, for distribution among the Canadians. 
They could now afford to laugh at his threats. 

The ill-starred fleet of Sir Hovenden Walker had not 
yet reached the end of its misfortunes. On the voyage 
home the frigate Feversham and three transports were 
lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. One week after the 
admiral's arrival at Portsmouth, the flag-ship Edgar, 
with the admiral's papers and journals, and four hun- 
dred men on board, blew up at her moorings.^ 

1 Charlevoix. 

2 Walker says he lost the original of Sir William Phips's journal of his Canada ex- 
pedition by this accident. 



1711] THE GREAT SHIPWRECK 283 

In England the Court went into mourning. Strange 
to say no official inquiry was made into the causes 
of the return of the fleet. The real delinquents, 
however, sought to shield themselves by throwing 
the blame upon Dudley, upon the Bostonians, upon 
the pilots — in short, upon everybody but New England 
themselves. Dudley was notified of the blamed. 

coming storm and made a dignified answer. The pilots 
were sent to England, in order to give their evidence, 
but it was never called for. The policy of the Minister 
seemed to be to let the matter die out. Silence, indeed, 
best served to hide the cruel mortification of such a 
wretched ^asco, which it was hoped might be the sooner 
forgotten. This was all very well for England. But in 
the colonies, where public expectation had been raised 
to such a height, only that the fall might be the greater, 
the universal discouragement found vent in mutterings, 
long, loud, and deep.^ 

1 Of what may be called contemporaneous authority, the journals of "Walker, Hill, 
Vetch, and King are in existence. Walker's was not published until 1720, when the 
events were not fresh in the writer's memory. It was an attempt to exonerate himself. 
Vetch's may be found in Vol. IV., Nova Scotia Historical Society Collections, King's 
in the British Colonial Papers. See also Charlevoix and Penhallow ; also Lieuten- 
ant-colonel George Lee's letter of September 12, 1711. An extract from a letter of 
Samson Sheafe, commissary to the New England forces, in Hutchinson, Vol. II., may 
be considered contemporaneous, Hutchinson gives the best account of what occurred 
while the fleet lay at Boston. There is also a reference to the expedition in the Lon- 
don Magasine for 1756, p. 231. 



XXVIII 
CONCLUSION 

COMMISSAKY Sheafe, writing home from Annapolis, 
under date of October 6, 1711, truly says of the futile 
ending of Walker's expedition : " This will be a bitter 
pill for New England." His words regarding the out- 
look were no less prophetic : " The French will now 
employ their Indians with redoubled rage and malice, 
to distress and destroy our exposed frontiers." 

To forestall these incursions, Colonel Walton marched 
in the autumn at the head of one hundred and eighty 
men as far as Penobscot, where he found two vessels 
being fitted out as privateers, and burned them. He 
also took a few prisoners here. 

A single piece of good fortune may be placed to the 
credit of Walker's inglorious expedition. It was not 
much, but it counted for much just at this time, when 
the public mind was so depressed by defeat. It was 
now learned that Annapolis had been on the point of 
falling into the enemy's hands again. Indeed, very few 
people knew how narrow had been the escape, until the 
danger was over, or how determined the French were 
to repossess themselves of a place of such vital impor- 
tance to the control of the fisheries. 

Outside of the three-mile limit expressed in the 
axticles of capitulation, the inhabitants were openly 



CONCLUSION 285 

hostile, and inside of it covertly so. In the first place 
they were as strongly loyal to their old master as ever, 
and in the next, Nicholson's drastic treatment was not 
likely to reconcile them to their new one. To all in- 
tents, therefore, they were still enemies to be reckoned 
with. Vaudrenil, always alive to the importance of re- 
covering Acadia, never ceased to exhort these people 
through his agents, the missionaries, to hold fast to 
their old allegiance, promising them his active assistance 
to maintain themselves where they were, rather than 
see them abandon the colony, as they had proposed 
doing. That would never do. Events were shaping 
themselves exactly to Vaiidreuil's Avishes. Annapolis 
had fallen in October. By June 1st, following, the gar- 
rison had lost two-thirds of its numbers by sickness,^ if 
French reports are true, and in this weak situation at 
condition no doubt would have fallen an Annapous. 

easy prey to the exasperated Acadians, who were only 
waiting for reinforcements to arrive from Quebec to 
break out in open revolt, when certain news of the 
English fleet being seen on the coast caused the whole 
enterprise to fall to the ground. After the fleet's re- 
turn, Annapolis was made secure against any sudden 
stroke. 

Here began those anomalous conditions which finally 
resulted in the expulsion of the Acadians from their 
native country forty-five years later. From this time 
onward they were as undeniably the victims of French 
policy as soldiers ordered to hold a post, with the full 
knowledge that they are to be sacrificed to the last 
man. 

1 An exaggeration, though some had been withdrawn, and their places taken by 
New England troops. 



286 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 



The Bostoniaus were in the first glow of mingled 
anger and mortification over the ill-success of the great 
expedition when a new calamity pushed the old rudely 
aside. On October 2d, early in the evening, a fire broke 
out " through the carelessness of an old Avoman," pick- 
ing oakum by a lighted candle, by which most of the 
business part of the town, including its oldest church 
and its town-house — two buildings around which clus- 
tered its earliest and latest history — was laid in ashes. 
Boston -^11 night the flames raged unchecked. 

o" *'''®- When they had spent their fury the very 

heart of Boston was a mass of smouldering ruins. It 
had come like a thief in the night, when the inhabitants 
were wholly unprepared. Besides a number of lives lost, 
more than one hundred families were rendered home- 
less ; and so far did this conflagration surpass any that 
had previously happened in the history of the town, 
that for fifty years it was always spoken of as the great 
fire. 

A quiet winter was followed by the usual irruptions 
in the spring. The frontier fairly swarmed with small 
scalping parties, whose fury chiefly fell upon the towns 
lying to the east of the Merrimac. It was a sudden 
dash, a deed of blood, and the perpetrators had van- 
ished as quickly as if the earth had swallowed them up. 
At Exeter, April 16, 1712, one Cunningham was killed 
while travelling from Mr. Hilton's to town. Soon after, 
Samuel Webber was shot between York and Cape Ned- 
dock. Three more were slain, and three wounded, while 
engaged in teaming at Wells. Lieutenant Josiah Little- 
field,' one of the slain, had but just returned home 

1 LiTTLEFlELD's adventures are given in considerable detail in Bourne's History of 
Wells. 



1 



CONCLUSION 287 

from a long captivity. Getting bolder, the marauders 
presently showed themselves in the middle of the town, 
where they secured two captives. They New Hampshire 
then went to Spruce Creek, in Kittery, and Maine 

killed one lad, took another, and though raided. 

closely pursued, made their escape into the woods. 
Another party struck the upper branch of Oyster Eiver, 
where they shot Jeremiah Cromett and burned a saw- 
mill. At Dover, Ensign Tuttle was killed and a son 
of Lieutenant Heard wounded while standing guard. 
On May 14th a larger party of the enemy, who had 
ambushed the road between Wells and Cape Neddock, 
fell upon a scouting party of English, killed the ser- 
geant,^ and took seven prisoners besides. The rest 
fought in retreat, until they came to a high rock where 
they held their pursuers at bay till relieved by Cap- 
tain Willard. The only loss sustained by the Indians 
up to this time was eight slain during a scout up the 
Merrimac. 

Notwithstanding the fact that scouting parties were 
kept out, John Pickernell was shot at Spruce Creek, as 
he was in the act of locking his door, his wife wounded, 
and a child knocked on the head and scalped. Stephen 
Oilman and Ebenezer Stevens were taken at Kingston, 
and Oilman was put to death. Two children of John 
Waldron were seized outside of Heard's garrison at 
Dover and brutally decapitated because the savages did 
not have the time to scalp them, and would not lose the 
scalps. The garrison itself was not molested, although 
there was no one in it at the time except a few women, 
one of whom, Esther Jones, kept up such a shouting 
that the assailants, deceived as to the fact, did no fur- 

1 Penhallow, whose account is here followed, calls him Nalton (Knowlton ?). 



288 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND 

ther mischief there. ^ Berwick and Wells again suffered 
the loss of a man each, and at Wells, Sambo, a negro 
slave belonging to Captain John Wheelwright, was car- 
ried off while out looking for his master's cows, but 
quickly made his escape again by trusting to fleetness 
of foot.~ On September 1st John Spencer was killed 
and Dependance Storer wounded. 

In September a noteworthy event took place at AYheel- 
wright's garrison. In the midst of all these alarms, or 
rather in spite of them, his daughter, Hannah, and 
Elisha Plaistead, of Portsmouth, were to have an old- 
fashioned wedding, to which the neighbors far and near 
had been invited, and had come in goodly numbers 
Endofawed= to witncss, as Wheelwright was a man 
d'"s- of some consequence in that section. But 

there were other guests not far off who had come there 
unbidden. After the nuptial knot had been tied, and 
the company was separating to their homes, two horses 
were missing. Some of the party started off to look for 
the animals, which were supposed to have strayed away. 
A few minutes after their departure several gunshots 
were fired in quick succession. The trap laid for the 
unwary whites was then exposed. Indian cunning had 
been used to decoy them to their death. On the spur 
of the moment, a dozen or more men hastily mounted 
their horses and rode off to the rescue of their friends, 
the bridegroom with the rest. 

This party also fell into an ambuscade, from which 
the savages fired as it was passing at a gallop, killing 
one man, Captain Kobinson, outright, and unhorsing 
the others. All who were unhurt got safely off except 

» Tenhallow : Belknap's IVew Hampshire. 

2 Related at length by Bourne, History of Wells and Kennehxmk. 



CONCLUSION 28^ 



the unlucky bridegroom, wlio was qmck y seized and 
dragged away by his tawny captors. O he first party 
Joslua Downing and Isaac Cole were killed, and Ser- 
geant Tucker was wounded and made a prisoner. 

After this rebuff the white men acted with more pru- 
dence. A stronger party set out in pursuit of the 
marauders, who were presently found in strong force 
brought to bay, and sharply attacked, though without 
making much impression. After the loss ot a man or 
two on each side, the Indians slowly moved off with 
their captives. Soon after a letter came from Plaistead 
to his father, saying that his captors demanded £50 
ransom for him and £30 for his fellow-prisoner. Tucker, 
besides certain articles of which they stood m want 
He put the number of Indians at two hundred, and 
said they were from Canada. His letter closes with 
this moving entreaty : 

" Pray, sir, don't fail, for they have given me one day, 
but the days were but four at fcst. Give my kind love 
to my dear wife. This from your dutiful son till death, 

" Elisha Plaistead. 

Had it been attended with no loss of life, the act of 
kidnapping a bridegroom, and at such an interesting 
moment, too, might be fairly classed among the humors 
of the war, instead of being only one more reminder ot 
its stern realities. 

With this affair hostilities definitely closed.^ In tact 
a treaty of peace had been signed on April Treaty^of 

11 1713, by the belligerent powers, which 
Matthew Prior, who, with his patron, St. John, Ua.l 

. ^ , -D .ia August 7 1712 old Style, and ratified by Queen 

.:: ::risr„rrsris."-. -,; «. ja ... .....^ .. oc..e.. 

19 



290 THE BORDER WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 

taken some part in the secret negotiations, tersely char- 
acterizes as "the d d peace of Utrecht." Strong 

language that; yet it is doubtful if a more scandalous 
story ever disgraced the annals of a nation ; and there 
were few who could speak with more authority than the 
pliant tool of an unscrupulous minister. To the colonies, 
however, who could have no hand in the settlement, the 
result was everything. Only those who have witnessed 
the ravages, the demoralizing influences of war, under 
the weight of which the colonies were being slowly 
pressed to death, can begin to realize what the sudden 
lifting of the weight meant to an impoverished people. 
To them, at least, peace came untainted with dishonor. 
The loss of life, and that too of the very flower of the 
country, had been such as to give a check to all thoughts 
of triumph. From the beginning of Philip's AVar, in 
Losses by 1675, to the close of Queen Anne's, in 1713, 

war. it ^ag reckoned that from five thousand to 

six thousand had perished in the service — a most griev- 
ous blow to the growth of the country. To the miseries 
incident to the total extinction of some families and the 
dismemberment of others, were added the burdens of 
private and public debts, incurred on account of the 
war, and likely to last out a lifetime. Yet all disasters 
had been patiently borne, all sacrifices freely made, in 
the hope of putting an end, once for all, to a state of 
things in which these complicated evils had their com- 
mon source. 

Under the treaty France gave up Acadia as lost, 
though not without a struggle which should have been 
Acadia a revelation to the commissioners charged 

gained. wUh the duty of framing the various ar- 

ticles. One thing after another was offered to procure 



CONCLUSION 



291 



its return and refused. During the negotiations pre- 
liminary to the signing, the following proposal was 
made : " His Majesty offers to leave the fortifications of 
Placentia as they are, when he yields that place to Eng- 
land — to agree to the demands made of the guns of 
Hudson's Bay; moreover, to yield the islands of St. 
Martin and St. Bartholomew — to give up even the right 
of fishing and drying cod upon the coast of Newfound- 
land, if the English will give him back Acadia in con- 
sideration of these new cessions which are proposed as 
an equivalent. In this case his Majesty would consent 
that the river of St. George should be the limit of 
Acadia, as England desired." 

But after having obstinately refused to gratify Louis 
by giving back Acadia to France, the English commis- 







^■*"*"S^^& 



oomoiiofMiiiiiiimiinmiiiw 



A WAMPUM PEACE BELT. 

sioners immediately proceeded to make an exhibition 
of imbecility, almost, if not quite, neutralizing the ad- 
vantages of this hard-earned conquest. Louis was al- 
lowed to retain Cape Breton and to fortify Louis keeps 
there, thus putting it in his power to ere- ^^p^ Breton. 
ate a much more formidable post than Annapolis had 
ever been, and one far better situated for commanding 



292 THE BORDER WARS OP NEW ENGLAND 

the entrance to the St. Lawrence. To the dullest com- 
prehension this piece of folly, or worse, meant that in 
the event of another war the work just finished would 
have to be done all over again. To the bewildered col- 
onists nothing, in short, could be plainer ; but in Eng- 
land American objects were of secondary importance. 

France also gave up all claim to sovereignty over 
Newfoundland, although the privilege of drying fish on 
the west coast was granted her — another stupid con- 
cession which has periodically threatened to disturb 
the peace of the two nations until a very late day. In 
short, as a specimen of modern diplomacy, the Treaty 
of Utrecht stands without a peer for what it left un- 
settled and undone. 

The French view of the value of Indian alliances was 
set forth by the pithy remark of De Costabelle to the 
minister when going to take charge at Cape Breton, 
*' Point d'argent, point de Suisse." 

One incident of the treaty is not without interest, if 
only for its damning testimony to the bigotry of the 
time. Under date of June, 1713, Lord Dartmouth 
writes by the queen's orders to Nicholson, at Annapo- 
lis, that inasmuch as the Most Christian King had, at 
her request, " released from imprisonment on board his 
Oaney= galleys such of his subjects as were de- 

siaves. tained there on account of their professing 

the Protestant religion," it was her Majesty's good 
pleasure that such of these unfortunates as might have 
lands or tenements either in Acadia or Newfoundland, and 
were willing to become British subjects, might retain 
their property, sell it, or remove, as they should see 
fit. 

The hostile trilx^s were quickly apprised of the turn 



CONCLUSION 



293 



of affiiirs through their allies, the French. Left to 
shift for themselves, no time was lost in sueing for peace. 
To this end certain of them came with a Treaty with 
flag to the fort at Casco, declaring their >"d'«"«- 

wish to enter into a treaty with the English. Captain 
Moody forwarded their request to Governor Dudley, 
who agreed to hold a conference with them at Ports- 
mouth, which accordingly took 
place on July 13, 1713, when 
a treaty, couched in the usual 
terms, was duly signed and 
sealed by the contracting par- 
ties. It was an agreement in 
which all the xlemands were 
on one side and all the con- 
cessions on the other. The 
Indians, on their part, freely 
confessed to their past mis- 
deeds, again acknowledged 
themselves lawful subjects of 
the Crown of England, prom- 
ised for the future to forbear 
all acts of hostility toward the 
English or in any way ob- 
structing the free entrance of 
the refugee settlers upon their 
old plantations. As a measure 
of security the Indians were 
prohibited from coming near 
any English settlement on the 
west of Saco. Other stipula- 
tions were similar to those embodied in the treaty of 
1693, made between the Indians and Sir William Phips. 




Kirebenuit. 



Warraeensitt. 



Bomazeen. 



Wadacanaquin. 



^neas. 



Iteaiisis. 



Jackoid. 



Joseph. 



TREATY SYMBOLS. 



294 THE BORDER WARS OT NEW ENGLAND 

Here ended twenty years of almost continuous war- 
fare, broken only by a short respite of four years from 
its alarms, and during whicli the valor, patience, and 
endurance of the inhabitants of New England had been 
put to the severest test. As the truest index to the 
character of a people, struggling with an adversary 
against whom it was impossible to cope on equal terms, 
it is a great story. 



INDEX 



Abenakis. {See Canibas, Mali- 
cites, MiCMACs, Pennacooks, 

SOKOKIS, ETC.) 

Abenquid killed, 108. 

Acadia (Nova Scotia), expedition to 
attack, 57 ; restored to France, 153 
and note. 

Acadians, The, their anomalous con- 
dition, 285. 

Adams, Samuel, mentioned, 244 
{note'). 

Agamenticus, Mount, a lookout for 
Indians, 73. 

Amesbury, Mass., raided, 219. 

Andover, Mass., assailed, 134. 

Andres, Sir Edmund, as war gov- 
ernor, 10 ; plunders St. Castin, 10 ; 
makes a winter march into Maine, 
12; is deposed, 13. 

Andros, Captain Elisha, holds peace 
talk, 69. 

Androscoggin Indians killed by- 
Church, 67. 

Annapolis Royal {also Port Royal) 
menaced with a revolt, 284. 

Appleton, Samuel, 374 {note). 

Appleton, Lieutenant-colonel Will- 
iam, at Port Royal, 228. 

Armstrong, Captain Lawrence, es- 
capes the wreck, 279. 

Asacumbuit, his murderous deeds, 
248 and note. 

Austin, Matthew, slain, 207 (note). 

Ayres, Corporal, taken and given his 
liberty again, 265. 

Baker, Thomas, rescued, 68. 



Baptiste, a corsair, exchanged for 
Rev. John Williams, 210, 212. 

Barker, Lieutenant, killed, 201. 

Barnard, Mrs. Benjamin, retaken, 67 
{note). 

Barnard, Rev. John, account of op- 
erations at Port Royal, 228, 229. 

Beaubassin, M. de, conducts the 
siege of New Casco Fort, 160. 

Beaucour, M. de, strikes Lancaster, 
Mass., 205. 

Becancour, residence of seceding 
Abenakis, 150 and 7iote. 

Bellomont, Lord, dies, 147, 148. 

Berwick, Me. , troops mustered at,36 
killing at,72 ; ravages at (1703), 165 
desperate attack on (1703), 168 
friendly Indians posted at, 188. 

Bickford, Thomas, saves his garri- 
son, 99. 

Biddeford Pool. {See Winter Har- 
bor.) 

Bigot, Fr. Jaques, sets on attack on 
York, 76 ; incites Indians to war, 
154. 

Billerica, Mass. , raided, 85 ; killing 
at, 106 and note. 

Black Point. {See Scarborough, 
Me.) 

Blackman, Benjamin, seizes Indians, 
11. 

Blanchard, Hannah, killed, 219. 

Blanchard, Nathaniel, killed, 219. 

Bolingbroke, St. John, Lord, en- 
gages in conquest of Canada, 268 
and 7iote. 



296 



INDEX 



Bomazeen, at sack of Dnrham, 97; 
captured, 104 ; at council ot Casco, 
151. 

Bonaventure, de, at taking of Pema- 
quid, 111 ; implicated in contra- 
band trading, 221 and note. 

Bonner, Captain John, impressed as 
pilot, 274 and note. 

Borland, John, fined for contraband 
trading, 222, 

Boston, plan to destroy it frustrated, 
129 ; visited by small-pox, 149 ; 
losses inflicted upon her commerce, 
251; great armament assembled at, 
272 ; great fire at, 286. 

Boston News Letter published, 194 
and note. 

Boularderie, M. de, wounded at 
Port Royal, 235. 

Bourne, Edward E., quoted, 288 
{note). 

Brackett, Anthony, fight at his 
farm, 39 ; escapes, 68. 

Bradley, Hannah, scalds an Indian, 
169 ; her sufferings and heroism, 
170 and 9Wte. 

Bradley, Joseph, his garrison capt- 
ured, 169. 

Bradstreet, Lieutenant-colonel Dud- 
ley, his house attacked, 134, 135. 

Bragdon, Arthur, his family slain, 
165. 

Breakfast Hill, N. H., 109 and 
note. 

Brookfield , Mass. , killing at, 86 ; 
depredations at, 92 ; more kill- 
ing, 264. 

Brouillan (Governor of Acadia), 
story of his heart, 152 (note), 221 
{note). 

Brown, Captain, drives enemy at 
Berwick, 168, 169. 

Burt, John, lost in the woods, 258. 

Canada, unassailable, 56 ; attacked 
by Phips, 58 ; does not want peace, 
94 ; her military strength, 143 ; 



Vaudreuil forms new defensive 
line, 150; the cgnquest of, urged, 
214 ; motives for avoiding a conflict 
with Ne^r York, 238; Walker's 
expedition against fails, 277 et 
seq. 

Canibas, location of, 3. 

Cape Breton becomes a strategic 
point, 291. 

Cape Elizabeth, Church's fight there, 
69. 

Cape Neddock, Me., visited by 
Church, 69 ; killing at, 71. 

Cape Porpoise laid waste, 158. 

Captain Nathaniel at sack of Dur- 
ham, 97. 

Captain Samuel at council of Caaco, 
151. 

Captain Tom raids Hampton, 162. 

Casco, or New Casco, important 
council held at, 150 ; fort assaulted, 
159. {See Falmouth also. ) 

Caughnawagas turn back from war, 
241. 

Chaillons, St. Ours de, attacks 
Haverhill, 240. 

Chambly, a French ofiicer, killed, 
248. 

Charlevoix, Francis Xavier, referred 
to, 228. 

Checkley, Rev. Samuel, 244 {note). 

Chesley, Captain, killed, 236. 

Chignecto (Beaubassin) burned, 113 ; 
again destroyed, 203. 

Chubb, Captain Pascho, in command 
at Pemaquid, 107 ; seizes Indians, 
108; surrenders the fort, 111 ; put 
in arrest, 113 ; slain by Indians, 
134. 

Church, Benjamin, first expedition 
of, 38 et seq. ; fight at Falmouth, 
39 ; limit of march, 42 ; second ex- 
pedition, 66 et seq. ; operations 
on the Androscoggin, 67; goes to 
Pemaquid, 84, 85 ; fourth expedi- 
tion, 112, 113; superseded, 114 and 



INDEX 



297 



note ; offers his services to Dudley, 
193 ; fifth expedition, 196 et seq. ; 
lays Acadia waste, 20] , 202. 

Church, John, kiUed, 266. 

Coffin, Ebenezer, fined for contraband 
trading, 222. 

Cole, Abigail, killed, 108. 

Cole, Isaac, killed, 289. 

Cole, Nicholas, killed, 189. 

Cole, Thomas, killed, 108. 

Colton, Captain Thomas, notable ex- 
ploit of, 86. 

Connecticut, sends soldiers into the 
Valley, 164 ; agrees to aid in its de- 
fence, 173 ; complaint of backward- 
ness of, 220 ; raises forces to invade 
Canada, 251. 

Connecticut Valley, fighting strength 
of (1704), 173 and note. 

Contoocook River, N. H., scene of 
Mrs. Dustan's exploit, 122. 

Contraband trade, exposure of, 221. 

Converse, Captain James, repulses 
Indians at Wells, 70, 71 ; his brave 
defence of, 76-81 ; ranges in Maine, 
92. 

Courtemanche, Tilly de, at the tak- 
ing of Falmouth, 49; in Boston 
about exchange of prisoners, 209. 

Cow Island (Saco River), soldiers 
slain at, 132. 

Cowass, or Cowassuc, rumors of an 
Indian fort there, 190 and note ; 
adventure of a ranging party there, 
191. 

Cromett, Jeremiah, killed, 287. 

Cutts, Mrs. Ursula, killed, 102. 

Dane, Thomas, taken prisoner, 189. 

Davis, Captain Sylvanus, surrenders 
Fort Loyal, 52 ; his narrative, 54 
{note) ; is exchanged, 64. 

Dean, John, his saw-mill, 96 ; is 
killed, 97 ; Mrs. Dean's escape, 
98. 

Deerfield, Mass., a frontier village, 
172 ; expects an attack, 174 ; the 



blow falls, 177; set on fire, 180; 
slaughter at, 180. 

Des Goutins confirms contraband 
trading, 221. 

Diamond, John, tortured to death, 
81. 

Doneys at taking of Falmouth, 49 ; 
Robin Doney captured, 104. 

Dover, N. H., sacking of, 14-22; 
how protected, 14; -Indians seized 
at, 17 ; loss of life at, 21 ; killing 
at, 109 ; escapes an ambush, 207 
{note) ; man killed at, 264 ; more 
outrages at, 266, 287. 

Downing, Dennis, slain by Indians, 
131. 

Downing, Joshua, killed, 289. 

Drake, Samuel G., his preparations 
for this work, 1. 

Drew, John, his house assaulted, 216. 

Dudley, Joseph, made governor, 148 ; 
arrives in Boston, 149 ; eflforts to 
keep the peace, 150 ; efforts to meet 
the crisis, 163, 164; labors with 
Governor Winthrop for defence 
of Connecticut Valley, 173 ; no- 
tified to look to Deerfield, 174 ; his 
disgust with want of energy there, 
183 ; employs friendly Indians, 188 ; 
plays fast and loose about Port 
Royal, 204; suggests a neutrality 
to Vaudreuil, 210 ; urges conquest 
of Canada, 214 (note) ; suspected 
of contraband trading, 223 ; sends 
fleet back to Port Royal, 234; 
troubles with British commanders, 
272 et seq. ; makes peace with hos- 
tiles, 293. 

Dudley, Paul, brings action against 
illicit traders, 222. 

Dudley, William, goes to Canada 
about exchange, 210 and note; at 
Port Royal, 228. 

Dummer, Rev. Shubael, killed, 75. 

Dunkin, Benoni, killed, 68. 

Dunkin, Mary, killed, 68. 



298 



INDEX 



Dunstable, sharp combat at, 218 and 
no tea. 

Durell, Philip, his family carried off, 
158 and note. 

Durham, N. H., attacked, 38 {also 
Oyster Riveu) ; depredations at, 
92; murderous descent on, 96 et 
seq.\ loss of life at, 102; further 
killing at, 207 {note) ; again mo- 
lested, 216;, massacre at (1707), 
236. 

Dustan, Hannah, taken captive, 120 ; 
kills her captors and makes her es- 
cape, 125, 126 ; gets bounty for 
scalps, 128. 

Dustan, Thomas, saves his children, 
118. 

Diitton, Joanna, killed, 86. 

Eastport, Me., visited by Church, 
199. 

Egeremet, a Kennebec sagamore, 11 ; 
at the attack on Wells, 76 ; killed, 
108. 

Egg Islands, Walker's fleet wrecked 
at, 278. 

Emerson, Jonathan, his garrison, 243. 

Exeter, N. H., attacked, 54 ; killing 
at, 72 ; disturbed by enemy, 131 ; 
several persons slain at, 220 ; again, 
264. 

Falmouth, Me. {also Ca.sco), Swaine's 
fight at, 37 ; Church relieves it, 
39 ; losses at, 41 ; attacked and 
burned, 49-51 ; Fort Loyal taken, 
52 ; dead buried at, 84 ; Falmouth 
new fort assaulted, 159 {see Cas- 
CO) ; settlement burned, 160. 

Faneuil, Andrew, undertakes to sup- 
ply Walker's expedition, 273. 

Fletcher, Pendleton, taken captive, 
264. 

Floyd, Captain, pursues Indians, 54. 

Fort Ann, Kennebec River, 13 {note). 

Fort Loyal, attacked and taken, 50 ; 
capitulation broken, 53. 

Fort William Henry, Me. , 85. 



Foss, Humphrey, captured and res- 
cued, 260. 

Fox Point, N. H. , assaulted, 54. 

Freeman, Captain, at Port Royal, 
227 (note), 228. 

Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Count 
de, sketched, 44 ; sends out war 
parties, 46 ; defends Quebec, 59 ; 
plans capture of Pemaquid, 109. 

Frost, Captain Charles, at Dover, 
17; is slain, 131. 

Fryeburg, Me., early home of the 
Pequawket tribe, 4. 

Galley slaves, French Protestants 
serving as such, 292. 

Gallop, Captain Samuel, his men 
killed, 168. 

Galusha, Rachel, killed, 219. 

Gardiner, Rev. Andrew, killed by 
mistake, 207. 

Gardner, Captain , fights at Hav- 
erhill, 243. 

Garland, David, slain, 264. 

Garrison houses, their design, 2 ; at 
Dover, 14 ; at Casco or Falmouth, 
50 ; at York, 74, 75 ; at towns in 
Massachusetts, 95 ; at Durham, 98, 
99 ; at Haverhill, 117 ; at Berwick, 
168 ; garrison life, 224; at Haver- 
hUl, 243. 

Gerrish, Sarah, her captivity, 23-26 ; 
is released, 64. 

Gilman, Jacob, captured, 264. 

Giiman, Stephen, killed, 287. 

Gooch, Benjamin, escapes Indians, 
189 and note. 

Greenleaf, Captain, pursues Indians, 
54. 

Groton, Mass. , raided, 102. 

Gyles, John, relation of, 30 et seq. 

Gyles, Mark, wounded, 207 (note). 

Gyles, Thomas, killed, 32. 

Haley, Sergeant, killed, 106. 

Hammond, Major, taken, 106. 

Hampton Village, N. H., harried, 
162. 



INDEX 



299 



Harding, Stephen, makes his escape 
from Indians, 155, 156. 

Harmon, Johnson, mentioned, 264 
{7iote). 

Hartshorne, Thomas, killed, 346. 

Hatch, Colonel, 244 (^note). 

Haverhill, Mass., situation and de- 
fences of, 117, 118 ; Indian de- 
scent at, 118 et seq. ; onslaught of 
1708, 243 et seq. ; sharp fight at, 
248. 

Hawthorne (or Hathorne), Captain 
William, seizes Indians, 16; su- 
persedes Church, 114. 

Haynes, Jonathan, killed, 135. 

Heard, Ann, retaken, 67. 

Heard, Mrs. John, slain, 131. 

Heard, Lieutenant, bravery of, 266. 

Hertel, Fran(;ois, leads an attack on 
Salmon Falls, 47 ; at Falmouth, 
49. 

Hill, Brigadier John, commands 
troops destined for Canada, 268, 
271 Inote). 

HiU, Ensign John, his lucky escape, 
80. 

Hill, Captain Samuel, acts in behalf 
of his fellow-prisoners, 209, 210. 

Hilton, Major Winthrop, goes out 
with Church, 199 ; leads forces to 
Norridgewock. 208 ; scouts in 
Maine, 225 ; serves at Port Royal, 
227 ; is assassinated, 263 and 
note. 

Hinsdale, Mehuman, captured, 256. 

Hobby, Sir Charles, at Port Royal, 
259. 

Hodgdon, Nicholas, slain, 189. 

Hoel, Mrs., slain, 215. 

Hopehood, at taking of Falmouth, 
49 ; strikes Fox Point, 54. 

Horn, John, wounded, 266. 

How, Captain, defends Lancaster, 
206. 

Huckins, Mrs. Robert, recaptured, 
67 (note). 



Hunnewell, Captain Richard, slain 
at Black Point, 164. 

Huntoon, Philip, captured, 264. 

Huntoon, Samuel, killed, 264. 

Hutchins, Enoch, loses wife and 
chUdren, 215. 

Hutchinson, Major Thomas, sent to 
the relief of York, 76; at Port 
Royal, 234. 

Hutchinson, Thomas, cited on Ind- 
ian barbarities, 184 {note). 

Iberville, Le Moyne de, takes Pem- 
aquid, 110; takes possession of 
Newfoundland, 114. 

Indian names, unreliability of early 
tribal designations, 3. 

Indian tribes, how placed in 1687, 3, 
4. 

Indians of New England (see differ- 
ent tribes) ; how King William's 
War left them, 137, 138 ; situation 
of, 224 ; compelled to submit, 293. 

Iroquois furnish warriors to invade 
Canada, 253 ; at Port Royal, 259. 

Isles of Shoals threatened, 72. 

James II. , his death-bed, 141. 

Johnson, Jonathan, slain at Haver- 
hill, 169. 

Joliet, Louis, taken prisoner, 64. 

Jones, Esther, her clever stratagem, 
287. 

Joslin, Peter, family butchered, 85. 

Kankamagus, attacks Dover, 18 ; 
hostages for his good behavior, 68. 

Kent, Mr. , slain at Casco, 160. 

King, Colonel, his journal quoted, 
274 {7iote). 

King William's War, causes of, 9, 10 ; 
ended by Peace of Ryswick, 134 ; 
loss of life by it, 137. 

Kingston, N. H., visited by scalping 
party, 264, 287. 

Kittery, Me., killing at, 103 ; Indians 
at, 106 ; again infest it, 215 and 
7iote. 

La Brognerie killed, 79. 



300 



INDEX 



Ladd, Samuel, killed, 135. 

La Hontan, Baron, on St. Castin, 27. 

Lamprey River, N. H. (Newmarket), 
attacked, 54. 

Lancaster, Mass., raided, 85; again, 
133 ; nearly destroyed, Ji05, 200. 

La Perriere in attack on Haverhill, 
240. 

Larrabee, William, family butchered, 
158. 

Lavsrrence, Daniel, captured, 80. 

Lawrence, Thomas, taken and killed, 
80. 

Lawson, Roger, fined for contraband 
trading, 222. 

Lee, Mrs., redeemed from captivity, 
39. 

Leonardson, Samuel, a captive to the 
Pennacooks, 123 ; helps to slaugh- 
ter his captors, 125. 

Levorett, John, sent to Port Royal, 
234. 

Littlefield, Lieutenant Josiah, killed, 
286 and note. 

Littlefield, Mrs. , killed, 286. 

Livingstone, Captain John, goes to 
Canada about exchange of prison- 
ers, 209 ; at taking of Port Royal, 
260 ; goes on a mission to Canada, 
261. 

Longley, Lydia, taken prisoner, 103 
(iiote). 

Longley, John, taken prisoner, 103 
(^?iote). 

Louis XIV. , he directs colonial af- 
fairs, 146. 

Lyman, Caleb, his account of a scout, 
191. 

Madockawando, at taking of Fal- 
mouth, 49 ; heads attack on Wells, 
76 ; at Quebec, 87 ; breaks the 
treaty, 96. 

Magoon, John, killed, 264. 

Malicites, location of, 3. 

Manchester, N. H., various names 
of, 167 (note). 



March, Captain John, marches to 
Pejepscot, 12 ; at Pemaquid, 85 ; 
scouting in Maine, 130; beats off 
Indians at Falmouth, 159 and 
note ; idle march into wilderness, 

164 ; kills Indians at Pigwacket, 

165 ; commands at Port Royal, 
227. 

Mare Point, Me., peace concluded at, 
with Indians, 136. 

Marlborough, Mass., killing at, 204. 

Martin, Captain, commands fleet at 
Port Royal, 259. 

Mascarene, Paul, at taking of Port 
Royal, 259. 

Mason, Major Samuel, commands 
friendly Indians, 188. 

Massachusetts forces in the field, 
217 ; forces for invasion of Canada, 
251. 

Massacre Pond, Me., 105 {note). 

Mather, Cotton, on the war, 10. 

Matinicus Island, Me., Church makes 
his rendezvous there, 190 and 7iote. 

Medocktec Fort, 34. 

Meneval (Governor of Acadia) 
charges Phips with robbing him, 
58 (note). 

Mesandowit's treachery, 18. 

Micmacs, location of, 3. 

Mines, or Grand Pre, burned, 201. 

Monhegan Isand, Church's forces at, 
113. 

Moody, William, captured, 256; his 
strange adventures, 257-59. 

Mount Desert Island, Church's expe- 
dition puts in at, 197. 

Moxus, goes against Pemaquid, 28 ; 
attacks Wells, 70 ; again, 70 ; re- 
news hostilities, 95; raids Groton, 
102; escapes from his captors, IDS. 

Munjoy Hill, Portland, Me., mas- 
sacre at, 50, 51. 

Neale's garrison, Berwick, Me., de- 
fended, 108. 

Neff, Mary, taken at Haverhill, 120. 



INDEX 



301 



Nelson, John, scene with Phips, 58 
(jnote) ; is taken prisoner, 87 and 
7iote ; thwarts Frontenac's plans, 
88 ; is sent to France a prisoner, 
90 ; is released, 92 ; referred to, 
231 {7iote) ; is consulted about 
Canada, 271. 

Nesmond, Marquis de, to destroy 
Boston, 129. 

Newbury, Mass., nine persons carried 
off, 107. 

New Dartmouth (Newcastle), Me., 
raided, 11. 

New England unprepared for war, 
10 ; does not wish for it, 44 ; new 
charter goes into effect, 82 ; losses 
by King William's War, 137 ; popu- 
lation in 17112, 142 ; military sys- 
tem, 143 ; men in service, 170 ; im- 
portance of her fisheries in Acadian 
waters, 237 ; raises more troops for 
Canada, 270 ; effect of Walker's 
disaster upon, 281 ; losses by the 
wars, 290. 

New England frontier, extent of in 
1687, 2; unsettled state of under 
Andros, 10 ; garrisons established 
to cover {see Garrisons) ; con- 
dition in 1694, 95 ; act to prevent 
desertion of, 95. 

Newfoundland, importance of to New 
England, 115. 

New Hampshire, on the point of de- 
sertion, 95 ; her efforts in the war 
(1703), 170. 

New Harbor, Me., in 1689, 33. 

Newichewannock. (/S'ee Berwick, 
Me.) 

New Jersey refuses aid to invade 
Canada, 253. 

New London, Conn., meeting of gov- 
ernors at, 270. 

New York, tacit truce with Canada, 
338 ; raises troops to invade Can- 
ada, 251 ; enters heartily upon 
Canada campaign, 270. 



Nicholson, Governor Francis, sends 
Mrs. Dustan a pewter tankard,138 ; 
takes the lead in plan to invade 
Canada, 250 and note ; leads 
troops to Wood Creek, 253 ; is 
compelled to break camp, 254; 
sails for England, 254 ; returns and 
takes Port Royal, 259 ; his journal, 
261 {note) ; threatens Vaudreuil 
with retaliation, 262 ; induces the 
ministry to attempt conquest of 
Canada, 267; at Boston, 269; 
obliged to retreat, 281. 

Norridgewock, Me., Indian mission 
at, 76; attempt to surprise fails, 
208. 

Northampton, Mass., garrison at 
surprised, 190. 

North Yarmouth, Me., raided, 11. 

Old Harry slain, 167. 

Oyster River. {See Durham.) 

Paper money, first Massachusetts 
issue, 65 ; another issue, 275. 

Parsons, Mrs. Hannah, taken cap- 
tive, 165. 

Partridge, Colonel Samuel, report on 
fighting strength of Connecticut 
Valley, 173. 

Passacomuc, Easthampton, Mass., 
190 {7iote). 

Peace of Ryswick proclaimed, 134. 

Peace of Utrecht, 289, 290 ; unfavor- 
able to New England, 291. 

Peaslee garrisons (Joseph and Na- 
thaniel), situation of, 243, 245. 

Pejepscot Fort, Church at, 67 ; re- 
visited, 68. 

Pemaquid, taken, 28, 29; fort re- 
built, 84 ; strategic importance de- 
scribed, 84 {note) ; named William 
Henry, 85 ; plan to surprise, 88 ; 
treaty concluded at, 93 ; four killed 
and six wounded at, 107 ; again 
taken, by Iberville, 110. 

Penhallow, Samuel, singular state- 
ment of his, 186 and ?iote. 



302 



INDEX 



Pennacooks, location of, 3 ; give 
shelter to Philip's men, 15. 

Pennsylvania refuses troops in 
Queen Anne's War, 252. 

Phillips, John, Jr., fined for contra- 
band trading, 222. 

Phippeny, Mr., killed at Casco, 
1()0. 

Phips, Sir William, who he was, 57 ; 
takes Port Royal, 58 ; repulsed at 
Quebec, 59 ; appointed governor, 
82 ; rebuilds Pemaquid, Hi ; signs 
treaty there, 93 ; dies in England, 
105. 

Pickernell, John, shot, 287. 

Pine Point {also Blue Point), Me., 
skirmish at, 36. 

Plaistead, Elisha, ludicrous advent- 
ure of, 288, 289. 

Portneuf leads an attack on Fal- 
mouth, 49 ; against Wells, 77. 

Port Royal, N. S., how named, 55 
(note) ; taken by Phips, 57 ; re- 
taken by Villebon, 72 ; reduction 
of discussed, 226 ; troops raised for 
it, 237 ; are landed, 228 ; re-embark, 
233 ; are sent back again, 234 ; but 
fail as before, 235 ; is finally taken 
by Nicholson, 261 ; called An- 
napolis Royal, 261. 

Portsmouth, N. H., raided, 109. 

Praying Indians, location of, 3. 

Price, Captain, at Haverhill, 243. 

Prior, Matthew, his agency in peace 
negotiations, 290. 

Prisoners, steps looking to exchange 
of, 208 et seq. 

Purpooduc Point, Me., Church's 
fight at, 69 ; slaughter at, 159. 

Quaboag. {See Brookfield.) 

Quebec, Phips repulsed at, 58, 59 ; 
its strength, 60 ; English plan of 
attack, 62. 

Queen Anne's War breaks out, 141 ; 
a pretext found for it. 1 54. 

Queen's Arms first imported, 194. 



Rale, Sebastian, excites Indians to 
war, 154. 

Redknap, Colonel (engineer officer), 
at Port Royal, 227 and 7tote ; gives 
half-hearted aid, 230. 

Rehoboth, meeting of governors at, 
254. 

Rhode Island raises troops for in- 
vasion of Canada, 251 and note. 

Roaring Rock, locality in York, Me. , 
75. 

Robinson, Captain, killed, 288. 

Rolfe, Rev. Benjamin, slain, 244 and 
note. 

Romer, Colonel Wolfgang, men- 
tioned, 227 (:note). 

Rouville, Hertel de, leads an attack 
on Deerfield, 175; begins his re- 
treat, 182 ; is attacked, but beats 
off his assailants, 184 ; is wounded, 
186; leads a war-party against 
Haverhill, 240. 

Rowse, William, detected in contra- 
band trading, 221 ; arrested and 
fined, 221. 

Rye, N. H., killing at, 72. 

Saco Falls, Biddeford, Me., 36 {note)\ 
Church at, 69 ; fort built at, 93 and 
note ; Indians infest, 1 06 ; soldiers 
surprised at, 132 ; fort assaulted, 
159 and note ; more killing at, 167 ; 
again visited, 264. 

Saco River, Indians killed at, 68. 

Sagadahoc, truce of, 70 and note. 

Saillant, M. de, killed, 235. 

St. Castin, Baron de, his trading- 
post plundered, 10; his career, 
27 ; heads an attack against Pema- 
quid, 28; at the taking of Fort Loy- 
al, 49 ; at the assault of Wells, 77. 

St. Castin, the younger, leads Ind- 
ians against Pemaquid, 110; his 
house plundered. 154 ; wife and 
children taken, 197; fights and is 
wounded at Port Royal, 235 ; goes 
on a mission to Canada, 2(52. 



INDEX 



303 



St. Croix River, landings raided by 
Church, 199, 200 and note. 

St. Francis, village of seceding Abe- 
nakis, 150 and note. 

St. John River, skirmish at, 114. 

St. John's, Newfoundland, taken by 
French, 114; and is burned, 115. 

Salmon Falls, N. H., destroyed, 47, 
48. 

Scalp bounty, offered by Massachu- 
setts, 160 ; increased, 192. 

Scamman, Captain Humphrey, taken 
by Indians, 182. 

Scarborough {aUo Black Point), as- 
saulted, 159 and note; massacre 
at, 164, 165 and note; Indians 
slain at, 225 and note. 

Schenectady sacked and burned, 46. 

Schuyler, Captain John, bold dash 
. of, 58 {iiote). 

Schuyler, Colonel Peter, warns Dud- 
ley of a threatened descent, 174 ; 
sows defection among the French 
Iroquois, 239 ; takes Indians to 
England, 254, 255. 

Sewall, Samuel, on the Schenectady 
affair, 46 ; his prayer, 226. 

Sheaffe, Commissary, quoted, 284. 

Shed, Agnes, killed, 86. 

Shed, Ann, killed, 86. 

Shed, Hannah, killed, 86. 

Sheepscot, John, 105 and note. 

Sheldon, Ensign John, his house 
forced, 179 and note; goes to 
Canada about exchange, 209, 212 ; 
brings back Deerfield prisoners, 
212. 

Sheldon, Hannah, taken captive, 179 ; 
redeemed, 209. 

Sherburne, Captain, killed, 72. 

Sill, Captain Joseph, seizes Indians, 
16. 

Simsbury, Conn., killing at, 264. 

Smith, Henry, taken prisoner, 11. 

Snowshoe men for winter marches, 
167. 



Sokokis, locations of, 3, 4. {See also 
Pequawkets.) 

Southwest Harbor. {See Mount 
Desert.) 

Spanish River, Cape Breton, Walk- 
er's fleet at, 280. 

Spencer, John, killed, 288. 

Spruce Creek, Eliot, Me. , killing at, 
103, 287. 

Spurwink, Me., slaughter at, 159. 

Stebbins, Benoni, heroic defence of, 
180. 

Stevens, Ebenezer, captured, 287. 

Stevens, Samuel, captured, 256. 

Stoddard, John, escapes from Deer- 
field, 178. 

Stoddard, Rev. Solomon, his mode 
of hunting Indians down, 166 and 
note ; account of the sack of 
Deerfield, 186 (iiote). 

Storer, Dependance, wounded, 288. 

Storer's garrison, Wells, Me., brave 
defence of, 77. 

Stoughton, William, succeeds Phips, 
105 ; dies, 148. 

Subercase, M de, appointed Governor 
of Acadia, 221 {note) ; commands 
at Port Royal, 229 ; his successful 
defence, 234, 237 ; surrenders at 
last, 260 and note^ 261 and note. 

Swaine, Captain Jeremiah, marches 
into Maine, 36. 

Tailer, Colonel William, at taking of 
Port Royal, 259. 

Tasker, William, wounded, 207 {note). 

Taylor, Edward, taken prisoner, 11. 

Teconnet, an Indian village, 11. 

Ten Years' War. {See King Will- 
iam's War.) 

Thury, Father (missionary), goes 
against Pemaquid, 28, 33; sets on 
Indians against York, 76 ; at the 
sack of Durham, 100 ; at taking of 
Pemaquid, 111. 

Townsend sent to Port Royal, 234. 

Turner, Major, at Haverhill, 243. 



304 



INDEX 



Tuttle, Ensign, killed, 287. 

Two Brothers, Me., site of Indian 
treaty, 151. 

Tyng, Jonathan, entertains Mrs. 
Dustan, 137 {note) ; defends Lan- 
caster, 205, 206. 

Tyng, Captain John, killed, 264. 

Tyng, Colonel William, slays Ind- 
ians, 167 and note. 

United Colonies take action on the 
war, 38 and 7iote. 

Vaudreuil, M. de, his capacity, 145 ; 
persuades Indians to remove to 
Canada, 150; devastates Maine, 
154 et seq. ; negotiates with Dud- 
ley, 208-12 ; under orders not to 
attack New York, 238 and note ; 
treats Nicholson's threats with 
contempt, 262 ; tries to recover 
Acadia, 285. 

Vercheres, a French officer, killed, 
248. 

Vetch, Colonel Samuel, comes to Bos- 
ton, 171 ; goes to Canada, about ex- 
change, 210 and note ; accused of 
taking soundings, 215 {7iote) ; im- 
plicated in trading with enemy, 
221 ; and fined, 222 and ?iot€ ; is 
authorized to raise forces against 
Canada, 250 ; at the taking of Port 
Royal, 259 ; takes command there, 
261 ; put in command of New Eng- 
land troops, 270. 

Villieu, Sieur de, stirs up the Indians 
to war, 94 ; leads attack on Dur- 
ham, 96. 

Wainwright, Colonel Francis, serves 
at Port Royal, 237 ; succeeds to 
the command, 235 and 7iote. 

Wainwright, Captain Simon, slain, 
242, 246. 

Waldron, Richard, a leading citizen, 
14 ; object of Indian revenge, 15 ; 
is tortured to death, 19. 

Walker, Sir Hovenden, given com- 
mand of fleet destined for Canada, 



268 ; its strength, 270 ; is driven 
back, 276 et seq. ; loss of life, 279 
{7iote) ; flag-ship blown up, 283 ; his 
journal, 283 {7iote). 

Walley, Major John, leads troops at 
Quebec, 62, 

Walton, Colonel Shadrach, at Port 
Royal, 259 ; his successful scout, 
265 ; marches to Ossipee Ponds, 
266 ; scouts to Penobscot, 284 ; 
made secure, 285. 

Wanalancet warns of the intended 
raid on Dover, 22 (note). 

War of the Austrian Succession be- 
gins, 141. 

Waterbury, Conn. , killing at, 264. 

Webber, Samuel, killed, 386. 

Wedgewood, John, captured, 264. 

Weems, Captain James, surrenders 
Pemaquid, 30. 

Wells, John, goes to Canada about 
prisoners, 209. 

Wells, Jonathan, heads a pursuing 
party, 182. 

Wells, Me. , conference at, 69 ; Ind- 
ians repulsed at, 71, 72; again 
attacked, 76 ; is desolated, 155 and 
7iote ; troops quartered at, 163; 
men of killed, 189 ; more killed at, 
366; still another descent, 286; 
Indians attack a wedding party at, 
288, 289. 

Wheeler, John, killed, 216. 

Wheelwright, Esther, becomes a 
Catholic, 213. 

Wheelwright's garrison. Me., men 
of slain, 189. 

Wheelwright, Hannah, Indians break 
up her wedding festivities, 388. 

Wheelwright's Pond, N. H., fight at, 
54. 

Whiting, Rev. John, slain by Ind- 
ians, 133 and 7iote. 

Whiting, Colonel William, report of 
losses at Deerfield, 180 {note) ; at 
taking of Port Royal, 359. 



INDEX 



305 



Whittaker, Anna, her claims, 2i5 
and note. 

Wilder, Lieutenant, killed, 205. 

Willard, Captain, at Falmouth, Me. , 
49 (^)iote), 287. 

William Henry, name of Pemaquid 
fort. 85. 

Williams, Eleazer, 185 and note. 

Williams, Eunice, 185. 

Williams, Mrs. John, slain, 184 and 
note. 

Williams, Rev. John, singular pre- 
monition of danger, 176 ; his ac- 
count of the sack of Deerfield, 
177 ; is taken prisoner, 178 ; suf- 
ferings on the march, 184 ; ex- 
changed, 185 ; some account of his 
family, 185 and note. 

Williams. Stephen, redeemed, 21 1. 

Wilmington, Mass., harried, 219. 

Winslow, Samuel, killed, 2(54. 



Winter Harbor, attack on repulsed, 
158, 159 and note ; killing at, 264. 

Winthrop, Fitz-John, commands 
land forces, 58 {jiote), 173 and note ; 
puts more spirit into the war, 
187. 

Wiswall, Captain Noah, killed, 54. 

Witchcraft delusion breaks out, 83. 

Wolcot, INIrs. Joseph, killed, 86. 

Woodman's garrison, Durham, de- 
fended, 100 and note, 101. 

Wooster River, Me., fight at, 48. 

Worombo, his women and children 
become hostages, 08. 

Wright, Captain Benjamin, narra- 
tive, 259 [note). 

Wyatt, Lieutenant, defends Black 
Point, 165. 

York, Me., laid waste, 73 et seq. ; 
murders at, 165; more murders, 
266. 



20 



AMERICAN HISTORY 

By SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE 

FIVE VOLUMES PICTURING THE 
BEGINNINGS OF OUR COUNTRY 



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THE BORDER WARS OF NEW 
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COMMONLY CALLED KING WILLIAM'S AND QUEEN ANNE'S WARS 
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THE MAKING OF THE OHIO VALLEY 
STATES 

1660=1837 
With 74 Illustrations and flaps. i2nio, $1.50 

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THE MAKING OF NEW ENGLAND 

i58<^643 
With 148 Illustrations and flaps. 121110, $1.50 

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1578=1701 

With 80 Illustrations and ilaps. i2mo, $1.50 

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THE MAKING OF THE GREAT WEST 

1513=1883 

With 145 Illustrations and flaps. i2nio, $1.50 

Contents: Group I. Three Rival Civilizations. I. The Spaniards. 
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